Question Eight

Enter your discussion report-out below:

8. How can agencies leverage user communities to add contextual information that will help new users find/understand/use data for their specific purposes in the most appropriate manner?

There are good examples from the web: look at Amazon, eBay. Encourage/enable user communities to organize around their data requirements (e.g., Air Quality Working Group).

Engage professional societies, and also alternatives to face-to-face meetings... e.g., Facebook, other social networking.

User forums for data sets are a good existing example to copy. Systems (like web forums and collaboration tools) exist to provide contextual information. Users should be encouraged to participate.

You can provide a sandbox for evaluating new products.

Build an active user base and supply more user services.