January 14, 2010 -- The Winter 2010 meeting of the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (external link) featured an extended conversation about keeping valuable geospatial data available over time.
Bill LeFurgy from the Library of Congress spoke about the recent meeting of national experts to explore framing a national preservation and access strategy for geospatial data.
Chris Greer from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy discussed the Obama administration’s priorities for providing transparent access to scientific data. Greer made frequent reference to his group’s January 2009 report Harnessing the Power of Digital Data for Science and Society (PDF).
Meeting attendees actively engaged the speakers with comments and questions relating to many aspects of data stewardship. Moving large and complex data sets from their original environment was a particular concern, and there was strong interest in developing policies, practices and tools to enable transfer.
