The movement and exchange of data are frequently described using a 'flow' or a 'pipeline' model.  We differentiate a uni-directional data 'flow' from an alternative model, a web-of-repositories. A web-of-repositories is a federation of diverse nodes where communication, connections, and data exchange are multi-directional. Each node has a unique sphere-of-context with technical, organizational and social dimensions. In this poster we explore a multi-repository data landscape.

In recent years, advances in sensor network technology have shown great promise to revolutionize environmental data collection. Still, these systems have remained the purview of the engineers and computer scientists who design them rather than the useful tools for the field scientists who could utilize them. Today, while there are many data logging options for basic data collection in the field, scientists are still usually required to travel to the sites to retrieve their data, and manually import it into spreadsheets.

Quality control is a critical component of environmental data management, particularly for data collected by autonomous sensors. Performing quality analysis on high volume, real-time data from sensor networks, flux towers and instrumented platforms is a major challenge, though, and can become a limiting factor in managing these data. Software developed at the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Site (GCE Data Toolbox for MATLAB) has proven very effective for quality control of both real-time and legacy data, as well as interactive analysis during post processing and synthesis.

The LTER Network Information System (NIS) is the primary channel for exposing site-based data and metadata through a unified interface for use by value-added applications that include synthesis projects at both local and national scales, and is a core component of the Strategic Cyberinfrastructure Plan. The underlying framework to enable the LTER NIS is the Provenance Aware Synthesis Tracking Architecture (PASTA).

DataONE (Observation Network Earth) ensures the preservation and access to earth observation data spanning broad science disciplines to enable advances in science and education. For example, data on the sources and sinks of greenhouse gases can facilitate advances in climate change science and modeling, while data on land use patterns can facilitate scientific understanding of human-environment interactions at local and regional scales.

DataONE (Observation Network Earth) ensures the preservation and access to earth observation data spanning broad science disciplines to enable advances in science and education. For example, data on the sources and sinks of greenhouse gases can facilitate advances in climate change science and modeling, while data on land use patterns can facilitate scientific understanding of human-environment interactions at local and regional scales.

This workshop has three goals:

1) Inform interested participants about a new way to organize the LTER site information.  We offer the public a view of the information that has no dead-ends, that is, all the content is related, and each website view offers related contextual content, including data, personnel, metadata, projects, and the like.

2) Receive feedback

3) Recruit adopters and developers