Colour of Ocean Data:
a symposium on oceanographic data and information management with special attention to biological data

The Palais des Congrès, Brussels, Belgium
25-27 November 2002

Panel discussion

In the context of ocean data management, scientists, data managers and decision-makers are all very much dependent on each other. Decision-makers will stimulate research topics with policy priority and hence guide researchers. Scientists need to provide data managers with reliable and first quality controlled data in such a way that the latter can translate and make them available for the decision-makers. But do they speak the same ‘language’? Are they happy with the access they have to the data? And if not, can they learn from each other’s expectations and experience?

There were two panel members from each of the data management and the scientific communities, and from international organisations. The panel discussion was divided into two parts; the first part consisted of short opening statements by the panel members, based on the questions listed below. The second part was dedicated to open debate. Summary conclusions from the discussions can be found here.

Questions

• Data Centre representatives:
  • What do you see as the role for data centres in managing data from the global science programs?
  • What are the challenges you see that data centres need to face individually and collectively?
  • What added value comes from managing data in data centres, rather than in the originating institutions? What should a data centre have on offer to be more than just a convenient data archive?
• Scientists:
  • What are your expectations from the global network of data management systems?
  • Can the global network meet your expectations now, with some changes or with radical changes?
  • What governance structure would ensure effective and efficient management of global data, assuring and documenting data quality, securing data for future generations, and providing easy access to integrated multi-disciplinary data.
• International organizations:
  • What is the role of international organizations to address the data management requirements?
  • What do you think are the major challenges that the international organizations face in global data management?
  • What changes should be implemented at the international level to better deliver the global data management mandate?
• All
  • What data management practices can be employed to reduce the impacts of technological differences between developing and developed countries?
  • What do you see as the main differences in data management practices between biological and physical oceanographers? What can be done to bridge these differences?
  • If you had three wishes to improve global data management, what will they be?

Panel Members

• Chair: Savi Narayanan, MEDS, Canada
• Representatives from data centres:
  • Lesley Rickards, BODC, UK (presentation)
  • Catherine Maillard, IFREMER/SISMER, France (presentation)
• Representatives from the science community:
  • Peter Herman, NIOO/CEME, The Netherlands (presentation)
  • Neville Smith, Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (presentation)
• Representatives from international organisations:
  • Alan Edwards, EU (presentation)
  • Peter Pissierssens, IOC/IODE (presentation)