2008 Web Services Workshop

Title: Integrating Coastal and Ocean Observations in the Gulf of Maine

When:  Wednesday May 21, 2008    9:00am – 4:00pm

Where:  Gulf of Maine Research Institute, 350 Commercial Street, Portland ME

Why: Web services provide a key to harnessing ocean observations for maximum societal benefit. This basic premise underlies various federal initiatives, and the Gulf of Maine region stands poised to be at the forefront of the “service-oriented” approach for marine applications (aka Interoperability). Through this workshop, individuals and organizations interested in making their data available or accessing others’ data became familiar with the multiple opportunities that exist in the Environmental Web 2.0.

Overview
The technology of web services and associated consensus standards advanced by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC; www.opengeospatial.org) offer incredible opportunities to harmonize the various approaches in the environmental realm. This seminar presented an overview of national initiatives augmented by (or the potential to be augmented by) OGC standards, including the EPA National Environmental Information Exchange Network (NEIEN; www.exchangenetwork.net), the OCG Ocean Science Interoperability Experiment (OOSTethys; www.oostethys.org), and the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS; www.iobis.org). In addition, participants learned about regional efforts of the Gulf of Maine Ocean Data Partnership, including the model interoperability experiment.

The intent of this workshop was to inform partners about existing projects and technologies, and to inform future training needed to overcome the complexities of web services. Presentations and panel discussions on a variety of regional, national, and international initiatives were followed by hands-on opportunities to practice implementation mechanisms. Additionally, participants discussed challenges and opportunities from their own experiences working with data and model access and interoperability.

Outcomes
This workshop was a kick off to a series of webinars, which will truly enable interoperability by providing more in-depth instruction on implementation. Workshop discussion and participant feedback will determine future webinar content. These subsequent trainings will be available live on line, as well as recorded for future reference.

For more information, contact Jen Levin at 207-228-1668 or jlevin@gomoos.org.

Web Services Workshop Agenda and Presentations

Exploring Web Services with a Web Browser

Participant List

Glossary of Acronyms and Terms