F2018:2 Develop a community letter supporting archiving historical data at the National Archives
Responsible: Dave Wilson
Status: Wilson spoke with the USGS Records Disposition Coordinator regarding a community letter in support of NARA accepting the WWSSN film chips. He said he didn't think a letter is necessary at this time. But if he hits a wall then he may be willing to consider it. (Oct 2019) Hit a brick wall. Participants at the Historic film chip workshop worried about NARA not releasing from archive. Available at ASL in air-conditioned containers. Was some concern about being able to maintain cost of climate control. ASL has found a way to contain costs based on where they are housing the film chips.
F2018:5 Develop video tutorials for MUSTANG clients and other tools related to data access. Perhaps consider engaging a UW student intern
Responsible: Ahern
Status: Seeing if EPO Interns are a potential source of resources for this activity. Initial discussions with both University of Oregon (Amanda Thomas) and Paul Bodin at the University of Washington have taken place. Ahern is seeing if any funding can be found in the FY20 budget as an option, but this budget is rather difficult. There was no money found in the budget so it should be left as something to do if funds can be found. (Oct 2019) There was no money found in the budget so it should be left as something to do if funds can be found.
F2018:7 Prioritize any potential NSF SAGE II Yr1 carryover from IS and DS for Matlab interfaces to MUSTANG metrics: Take to CoCom to coordinate with IS
Responsible: Stump/Ahern
Status: There was no money found in the budget therefore it should be left as something to do if funds can be found. (Oct 2019) During the 2019 QAAC meeting, Jerry Carter asked what the desire of the community was for such an interface as (at that time) there was a possibility that funding might be found. A survey was sent out on 08/08/19 by Vedran Lekic and of the 14 respondents, 11 indicated that it would be useful. The budget could not support this project in 2019. Funds may be available in the Y2 budget.
S2019:5 Remove replicated data from selected European data centers per their request and inform the board that DS is moving ahead (include in CoCom report). There is an understanding that further coordination will take place in FDSN WGIII.
Responsible: Carter/Ahern
Status: Complete (11/15/19) All data requested for removal have been removed from our archives along with the associated MUSTANG metrics. These actions technically violate the Data Provider’s Agreement, so a revision or revocation of the agreement is recommended as a continued action. The revision has been drafted and accepted by the Board of Directors.
S2019:7 Develop draft guidelines about the types of derived data sets that might be useful to the community in the sense of extending the types of products we manage in the future for consideration at the Fall 2019 meeting.
Responsible: Stump/Carter/Trabant
Status: No Action
S2019:15 Draft a document that discusses derivative PH5 products that the DSSC should consider. Consider a SIG at the IRIS workshop.
Responsible: Lin/Thomas
Status: No Action
[F2019:1] Present the updated Data Provider Agreement to CoCom (for discussion) and the BoD (for approval) after determining if the document needs legal review.
Responsible: Carter
Status: Complete on 15 November 2019
[F2019:2] Present the plan to replace the Hitachi RAID archive as an informational item to CoCom and the BoD.
Responsible: Carter
Status: Complete on 15 November 2019
[F2019:3] Request BoD approval to extend the DSSC term of Peter La Femina by one year to 2021 to even out the rotation of DSSC members.
Responsible: Carter
Status: Complete on 15 November 2019
[F2019:4] Nominate a replacement for the vice-Chair vacancy on the QAAC
Responsible: Stump/Carter
Status: Complete on 15 November 2019
[JF2019:1] Invite each other’s directors and committee chairs to all IRIS and UNAVCO data services committee meetings.
Responsible: (Carter/Meertens)
[JF2019:2] Establish a Cloud Solutions working group when appropriate for informing the Joint Data Services Committee about a joint cloud infrastructure.
Responsible: (Directors and Committee Chairs)
[JF2019:3] Capture the essence of what came out of this first joint meeting to provide a statement that can serve as a stepping point to generating a Joint Committee Charge.
Responsible: Stump/Elliot
[JF2019:4] Develop a survey to be sent to the SAGE/GAGE community to solicit their views on the data services that they believe a joint facility should provide and the priorities of those services. Because many persons in the community will not be aware of the need to consolidate, a statement should be included at the beginning of the survey to explain.
Responsible: Stump/Elliot
[JF2019:5] After informing the Boards, write a proposal to NSF to fund a joint Spring workshop that would solicit detailed community input on consolidated data services. Early career scientists as well as other segments of the scientific and educational communities should be represented.
Responsible: Elliot/Stump
This was the first meeting of the Joint Data Services Committee (JDSC), which is comprised of IRIS’s Data Services Standing Committee (DSSC) members and UNAVCO’s Geodetic Data Services Advisory Committee (GDSAC). The DSSC met separately for two sessions, and the JDSC met for a morning session between the two DSSC sessions. The GDSAC, having met over the Summer, did not have a separate meeting.
During the first DSSC meeting the committee heard from the Director and the Deputies about the status of Data Services. In general, it is healthy, although it was reported that the main archive RAID disks will no longer be supported after June 2021 and must be replaced. Action has already been taken to begin the process of procuring, installing, testing and populating the replacement disks at both the primary data center in Seattle and the auxiliary data center in Livermore California. The Director also reported on the successful move of IRIS’s data services to new offices a few miles north of their previous location. The new offices are modern and close to both bus and future light rail transportation centers.
The Director presented a revised Data Provider Agreement to the DSSC for discussion. The main change to the agreement provides a clause that allows either signatory to terminate the agreement. It also states that any data that were already freely and openly available must remain so through an International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks (FDSN) federated data center (the IRIS Data Management Center is a FDSN federated data center). The committee agreed that the changes should be forwarded to the Board for approval.
The JDSC meeting had four main outcomes: 1) familiarize the committee members with each other’s data services; 2) receive reports about the joint review of the Seismological Facilities for the Advancement of Geoscience (SAGE) and Geodetic Facilities for the Advancement of Geoscience (GAGE) data services programs conducted by NSF in August 2019; 3) consider what might be placed in a charge for the JDSC; and 4) develop ideas for future collaboration.
The Directors and their management teams for the data services of NSF SAGE (Jerry Carter) and NSF GAGE (Chuck Meertens) gave overviews of their programs as well as giving their impressions of the NSF review of their data services. Although the report from the NSF review had not yet been released, both directors believed that their teams were able to convey their programs quite well and that the cooperation between the two programs was both evident and appreciated. The directors emphasized that they have a common vision of the future of their facilities that includes a shared cloud infrastructure. Both felt that the community demand for high-transaction and high-performance computation of large data sets make a cloud environment attractive as long as a low-cost and enduring cloud infrastructure can be found. The NSF announcement that it will solicit a single contractor to operate a combined SAGE/GAGE facility in the next solicitation emphasized the importance of this shared vision.
The JDSC agreed that it was premature to develop a charge, but that they would work closely together on the joint issues that will face the two data services programs as they consolidate. The committee agreed that it was important to inform the wider community of the consolidation and to get community feedback on the services that they would expect from a joint seismic and geodetic data services facility. A community survey was proposed that would include an approved preamble that explains the need for consolidation. In addition, the JDSC agreed that a proposal should be written to NSF to fund a Spring workshop for gathering broad community feedback.
Future JDSC meetings will be held at workshops where a majority of members might attend.
The final session of the DSSC included reports from the data collection centers at UCSD, Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory and the PASSCAL Instrumentation Center – all of which are operating well. A report from the Quality Assurance Advisory Committee (QAAC) was also provided. Due to a resignation, a recommendation is needed for a replacement and that task was lefty to the Director and the DSSC Chair. The QAAC has asked that a MATLAB interface for MUSTANG metrics be developed, but the committee gave this a low priority relative to SAGE/GAGE consolidation activities.
The meeting ended with agreement on a list of six candidates (with possible DSSC chairpersons) to replace outgoing members of the DSSC and a recommendation to extend the term of one of the members who was due to finish their term in 2020 so that there would be two members retiring in 2021 instead of only one. These names will be presented to the Board.
