July 8-9 Santa Barbara
From Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP)
Possible Cluster Activities:
- Explore links with air quality and other application areas
- Listen to what activities ongoing within agencies
- Collect use cases
- Align with ESIP Strategic plan
- Plan Winter Meeting with Decisions theme
- Include other social sciences, not just decision-making
Desired Outcomes:
- Establish Metrics- How to measure success? This is everything. ROI, risk assessment, articulation methods, tracing outcomes to actions. Confuse outcomes with outputs. Assessments drive evaluations. Are assessment tools adequate? Are we measuring/collecting the science info needed and did decision decisions produce desired results? If not, why?
- Success stories sometimes lack success stories (don’t answer metrics questions)
- Link outcomes/benefits/societal benefits
Winter Meeting themes:
- success stories/failures, metrics for success, gather use cases, decision tools/services
Potential speakers and attendees:
- World Bank, RFF/Molly, Rand, Pam Whitney (House Committee on Science), NOAA/RISA, NCAR Societal Impacts Program, USDA Extension, high-level managers, actual decision makers
Needs:
- Success stories. And what did not work.
- Systematic, retrospective analysis. Are tools/data appropriate to the needs. Lawrence mentioned successful applied stories
- Data integration complicates the process – did it add value to reduce risk?
- How to identify generalized needs at broader scale?
- Who is using environ indicators? Reality of forces/pressures. Recognize all aspects
- Environmental conditions? Should responses relate more to pressures?
- Better articulate responsiveness of info to needs
- What do the data mean?
- Readiness, timeliness needs
- Case studies / success stories / use cases- IT/benefits
- Defining added value may be difficult
- Try to understand how people make decisions
- Data Standards for decision-making
- Language barriers between scientists and policy makers
Roles of IT:
- IT and info products aspect of decision making
- Overpromising IT?
Roles of social science
- Value of the information
- Decision perceptions
- Human aspects of organizations/architecture
