July 20-23, 2010, ESIP Federation Meeting, Knoxville, TN

From Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP)
Revision as of 18:27, May 12, 2010 by Carolbmeyer (talk | contribs)

Meeting Venue

The 2010 ESIP Federation summer meeting is scheduled for July 20 – 23 in Knoxville, TN. Planning is ramping up for the meeting and the program will be a good one, with the theme, Energy and Climate. The meeting will take place in downtown Knoxville, a short ride from McGhee Tyson airport, and is co-hosted by the ORNL DAAC and the University of Tennessee School of Information Science. The hotel for the meeting will be the Hilton Knoxville 501 West Church Avenue SW, Knoxville, TN 37902 Phone 865-523-2300. Cost will be $84/night + tax (upgrade to a King for $94/night) (Group Code: ESI). Rooms can be booked online [1] or at 1-800-HILTONS. Cut-off date for reservations is June 30, 2010 or when room block fills up, whichever is sooner. The room block is limited with rooms available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Registration

Registration for the 2010 Summer ESIP Federation Meeting is available online [2]. Early registration (through June 18, 2010) is $375/members and $475/non-members. After June 18th, the registration fee rises to $475 (members) and $575 (non-members). Meeting attendees are provided an opportunity during registration that allows them to purchase optional carbon credits to offset their air travel to the Summer Meeting. Proceeds from your carbon credit purchases will be sent to Atmosfair. The Amosfair website has a carbon calculator to help you estimate your air travel's footprint. We request that you make payment through our registration system as we would like to track (anonymously) participation in this stewardship projedct. You can complete and pay for your registration for the meeting and separately pay for your credit in a different transaction.

Program

The theme of the 2010 Summer ESIP Federation Meeting is Energy and Climate. The ESIP Federation's Meeting Coordination group, the Visioneers, meets regularly one to two times a month to establish the program. Anyone with an interest is welcome to call in and contribute to the evolving program. The preliminary agenda for the meeting is posted. Check back often to see its evolution.

Technical Workshops

Breakout Tracks

Poster Session and Reception

Open Meeting Day

FUNding Friday

What: Annual Mini-grant competition. (see last year's funded projects here)

The Prizes: Three $5,000 awards to fund small projects that are inspired by ESIP collaboration or participation.

The Purpose: This competition serves several purposes, which should inform those desiring to compete:
1. The competition promotes and rewards new collaborations or bridges between ESIP projects and technologies, so that novel outcomes can be explored.
2. The competition fosters small-scale projects of real value by supporting programmer salary, travel—whatever is needed to realize the proposed work (overhead is NOT supported).
3. The competition showcases how the ESIP Federation can leverage current technologies and member skills to add new services with a modest amount of effort (and funding).
4. The competition rewards members who are looking to explore new collaborations and new ideas inspired by other Federation member activities.
This year’s competition does NOT have a single topical or other focus. It encourages collaborations across member organizations that demonstrate the value of ESIP participation. It is open to the imaginations and the needs of the ESIP members.

Eligibility: Registered meeting participants who are members of the ESIP Federation can apply (you need not be your organization’s Assembly representative). YOU MUST BE PRESENT AT THE FUNding FRIDAY POSTER EVENT TO COMPETE! Federal employees must check their eligibility to participate and funding is available only to partners from US-based organizations.

Limit on participation: An eligible member can be the lead person on only ONE proposed project. The team members for the project should be identified on the poster. Last year’s winners are ineligible to compete again this year.

To Participate: You must exhibit a poster (size limit: 25 by 30 inches) that describes the project at the FUNding Friday Poster event (morning of Friday, July 23) at the Summer ESIP Federation meeting. NOTE: the lead person on the project must be present for the poster to be considered. NO PROXIES. The poster can be hand drawn: the expectation is that novel proposal ideas will be rewarded. During the event, you will be expected to give a 2-minute pitch for your project idea. Time will be strictly enforced.

To Vote: Voting will take place at the FUNding Friday event. YOU MUST BE PRESENT TO VOTE. All persons who have paid the registration fee for the Summer Meeting are eligible to vote. Each voter will get THREE ballots, obtatined from the voter table. There is no rule against allocating all three ballots for one poster. Voting closes at the end of the Poster Session. The winners will be announced at a box-lunch event on the same day. In the case of two-way tie for third place, the winners can choose (by consensus) if they prefer to split the funding and do both projects, or flip a coin to determine the winner. In the case of a three (or more) way tie, the winner of the tie will be determined by a vote of the ESIP Executive Committee at the next regular telecon.

All decisions are final.

Responsibilities of the Winners: The winners will be given 50% of the funds when they submit a project statement of work and a milestone schedule to the Foundation Executive Director. The remaining 50% of the funds will be given out at the following Winter ESIP Meeting, where the winning projects will describe their work in a new poster. ALL WORK MUST BE DONE WITHIN THE SIX MONTH PERIOD BEFORE THE NEXT ESIP MEETING, unless a different timeline is requested in the original funded proposal. (In no case will project deliverables be allowed more than 12 months after the original competition.) This payment schedule can be revised by the Foundation Executive Director in cases where the is a compelling reason to complete the payment earlier. All funds must be spent according to current US Government rules on contract expenditures. Winning project leaders that fail to produce the proposed deliverables may find themselves at a disadvantage in future competitions.