In the spring of 2014, GEO, the Group on Earth Observations, established a Data Management Principles Task Force with the mandate to develop a set of Data Management Principles for the GEO community which would inform and help those organisations making data available through GEOSS, the ‘system of systems’, for discovering and accessing earth observation data.
The principles were developed in the summer of 2014 and were discussed at the GEO-XI Plenary in November 2014 and at the GEO Workplan Symposium in May 2015. They have now been made more publicly available via the GEO website. It is intended that they should be formally approved by the GEO-XII Plenary in Mexico City in November 2015.
The Data Management Principles Task Force is now working on a set of Implementation Guidelines for the principles. The Guidelines are intended primarily for organisations that contribute, or may contribute, data and services to GEOSS. A secondary purpose is as a high level good practice guide to implementation of data management principles to promote data sharing. The Guidelines will enable organisations to implement their specific data management system to meet users’ needs and comply to the greatest extent that is practical for them with the GEO DMPs. The document will be pitched at the strategic or managerial level: it will offer a high level view to help implementation and is not intended as a detailed technical guide.