Agenda Design
The first half of the morning is intended provide brief overviews of existing data bases (e.g., AQS and NASA DAACS) with the latter [art of the morning session covering the principle topic area: data base access and integration systems that have some post processing capabilities (e.g., VIEWS, DataFed). Assuming a basic inventory of what is available has been addressed in the morning, the afternoon session is broken into two parallel sessions addressing Information Technology (IT) issues and user needs. The IT breakout is charged with providing recommendations that facilitate data sharing and data manipulation, with specific attention given to EPA systems to both receive and disseminate data. [note, we need to be careful here as we do not want to convey the idea that EPA is willing to start with a clean slate. The existing systems are our infrastructure and we really are talking about how we these systems fit into a broader community.] The analysis breakout group is charged with providing basic recommendations on what data elements should be accessible, what types of data manipulations should be performed and what type of geospatial and graphical postprocessing capability is expected. [note: It is expected that routine data query capability by space, time and compositional attributes will be available to produce tables and maps of such queries comparable to existing VIEWS, HEI and CASTNET data systems.] Both breakout sessions will be populated by a mix of IT and data analyst specialists. The second day is dedicated to reporting out recommendations from the breakout sessions, soliciting group-wide input and modification of those recommendations and developing a “next steps” plan based on the meeting outcome. Realistically, we are using this meeting as an exploratory tool and are hesitant to suggest any potential outcomes at this time.
Guidance for presentations:
Provide concise descriptions of purpose, scope, intended users, constraints, illustrative examples and projected development items. These are to be cast as information pieces and not as marketing opportunities.