2019 EarthCube Annual Meeting

Standards for EarthCube projects have been investigated many times (see Resources listed below). One of the findings of the 2016 Reverse Site Visit (RSV) was that one of the factors impeding the development of a functional infrastructure was the lack of standards.  The RSV made this recommendation:
There is a need to define and/or adopt specific standards that ensure projects are integrable and data repositories are interoperable. These standards should be established by a small group of technologists and geoscientists, informed through discussions with the broader community. All grant awardees must be required to follow these standards.
The Leadership Council’s response to this recommendation was to agree with the 2016 recommendation of the Standards Working Group that a permanent “Standards Authority” be established to work with EarthCube funded projects to facilitate the adoption of standards and systematic practices that would provide mechanisms for integrative activities. The Standards Authority has not yet been implemented. In December 2018 the Leadership Council requested that the Technology & Architecture Committee (TAC) revisit the topic of standards and create a set of expectations/standards/best practices that all EarthCube projects should follow. In addition, the latest EarthCube solicitation included “.. clear documentation of any standards used and integration with EarthCube data and resource registries during the course of the project” as a specific requirement for proposals submitted.
TAC (led by Steve Richards and Ruth Duerr) wrote a summary of the standards discussion that took place during one of the monthly TAC calls. This paper, “EarthCube Specifications Recommendations” was given to the Leadership Council for their feedback. One of the recommendations in this paper:
 Consequently, EarthCube will not be ”standards authority”, but does need a standing “specification evaluation group” (SEG) for the purpose of finding, recognizing, and promoting the use of relevant and useful standards and practices.
The purpose of this breakout session is to continue the discussion of specifications for EarthCube projects as well as how to implement a standing SEG and what resources would be needed.
Resources: 

1. December 2014: Proposal for Standards and Standards Bodies Working Group (TAC WG) (http://bit.ly/2S7Dut9)
2. October 2015: Final Report of Standards WG (http://bit.ly/2PvAm85)
3. March 2016: RSV Report (http://bit.ly/2RGHYlo)
4. April 2016: Standards WG Implementation Plan (http://bit.ly/2TzmqJc)
5. June 2016: Architecture Workshop (http://bit.ly/2TIoh1l)
6. July 2017: Architecture Refinement Workshop (http://bit.ly/2MOeEsj)
7. February 2019: EarthCube Specifications Recommendations (http://bit.ly/2GCJaF2)