Sixth Meeting of the Steering Committee
TU Munich, Arcisstrasse 21, Room 3617, Munich, Germany
Saturday, October 7, 2006
05:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Sixth Meeting of the Steering Committee TU Munich, Arcisstrasse 21, Room 3617, Munich, Germany Saturday, October 7, 2006 05:30 PM - 7:00 PM |
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Agenda:
1 Welcome, Agenda
2
Minutes of SC5
The draft minutes of SC5 are available as
html
and
pdf
.
The minutes will not be discussed in any detail.
The participants are asked to identify necessary changes and/or corrections.
3
Action Item Status
The list of action items from the previous
Steering Committee meetings is available
as
html
and
pdf
.
4
Brief report from the Chair
The Chair will briefly report on the main activities of the
GGOS Executive Committee since
the 5-th Steering Committee meeting.
5
The GGOS Portal
Bernd Richter
will give a brief report on the status of the work
concerning the GGOS Portal.
6
Preparation of the 7-th Steering Committee Meeting
The 7-th Steering Committee meeting is scheduled to take
place on Friday, December 15, 2006, in San Francisco.
The goal is to prepare the agenda and to identify actions to
be taken prior to the SC meeting.
7
The 2007 GGOS Retreat and 2007 and 2008 Workshops
Different options for future GGOS Retreats (in spring) and Workshops
(in autumn) have been discussed in the GGOS Executive Committee,
and a summary of options and proposals is available
here
.
The goal is to reach a decision on place, date, and main focus of the
2007 Retreat
and the 2007 Workshop.
8
2007 ToR for GGOS
The key issues concerning the future GGOS ToR will be introduced and
a plan of action to prepare the ToR for acceptance by the IAG Executive
Committee at IUGG in Perugia will be discussed. Some considerations of
the EC concerning the current discrepancies between the ToRs and the IAG By-Laws
are available
here
.
9 GGOS Meeting Schedule
10 Any other business
11 Summary of Action Items
Notes:
1 Welcome, Agenda
Markus Rothacher welcomed all at his former place of work, and thanked Reiner Rummel and Ralf Schmid for the organization. In a brief round, everybody introduced him or herself.Markus Rothacher asked for comments on the agenda, and Wolfgang Schluetter requested to add a brief discussion of the situation in Canada after closure of the VLBI stations there. Bente Lilja Bye offered additional comments on the Data Portal. The agenda was accepted with these two additions.
2 Minutes of SC5
The minutes of the Fifth Steering Committee meeting were accepted without changes.3 Action Item Status
Markus Rothacher mentioned briefly a few of the open Action Items and explained that everybody can see the Action Item list on the GGOS-UNR web page. Hans-Peter Plag pointed out that
Action Item GGOS-SC-5-18: Ask all Steering Committee members to sent links to home pages or brief CVs to Hans-Peter Plag for inclusion on the Steering Committee Membership page. Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2006-04-15.
was still open and asked the SC members who had not done so to send the requested information.There were no additional comments on the AIs.
4 Brief report from the Chair
Markus Rothacher reported briefly on the activities since the last SC meeting (see the pdf ), which include the completion of the GGOS structure, the preparation of the GGOS Workshop, the initiation of the GGOS 2020 Strategy process, input to the GEO Work Plan 2007-2009, participation in the sea level workshop in Paris, the acceptance of GGOS as member of IGOS-P, preparation of a proposal for contribution to IYPE, and work related to the GGOS portal.
Addressing the GGOS2020 Strategy process, he reported some details on the strategy and reference documents to be prepared and pointed out that the Workshop is expected to provide important input to this process.
Concerning the next SC meeting, the SC7, it was requested to move the meeting from Friday, December 15, 2006, to Tuesday, December 12, 2006. No final decision was made.
Action Item GGOS-SC-6-1: The three chairs to decide whether the SC-7 can be moved to Tuesday, December 12, 2006. Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Hans-Peter Plag, Ruth Neilan, Deadline: 2006-10-22.
Bernd Richter reported that the IERS GGFC Workshop will take place on December 6-7, 2006, at the Hyatt in San Francisco. The IERS Directing Board meeting takes places on December 11, 2006. Richard Gross mentioned the GRACE Science Team meeting on Friday and Saturday prior to the AGU Fall meeting, and Ruth Neilan reminded of the IGS Strategy meeting and the Governing Board Meeting on Sunday.
It was agreed that the GGOS Writing Team would meet on Wednesday, October 11, 2006 at the LVA (the place of the GRF2006 meeting). It was also asked whether there should be a GGOS2020 Writing Team meeting during the AGU meeting, but no final decision was made.
Action Item GGOS-SC-6-2: Hans-Peter Plag to clarify whether there should be a GGOS2020 Writing Team meeting co-located with the AGU Fall meeting in San Francisco. Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2006-11-15.
5 The GGOS Portal
Bernd Richter gave a brief report on the status of the work concerning the GGOS Portal (see the pdf ), and he summarized the activities since the last SC meeting. He emphasized the need for GGOS to have a portal which would serve people coming from different external and internal fields. He introduced a draft main page, stating that these were initial and rough ideas (see jpg ).As a pre-requirement for the portal, several list are needed for products, instruments, services, institutions, projects, etc. For the collection of information, there are several choices of meta data catalogues (e.g. DIF or ISO 19xxx), and the choice should make sure both interoperability, and web service capability.
He continued to report that GEO is also in a discussion as to which meta data catalogue to accept, and for GGOS it is important to make the right choice that would be in line with GEO's decision. Bernd Richter concluded by showing some examples and stating that a lot of work will have to be done to set up the necessary catalogues.
Bente Lilja Bye mentioned that she discussed with John LaBrecque options for funding the work related to the GGOS portal. This lead Bernd Richter to stated that the setting up of the GGOS portal is a professional activity which needs the dedicated support of institutions behind it. Markus Rothacher also confirmed this opinion.
Ruth Neilan reported briefly on INDIGO. Frank Webb is working on a database for NASA. SCRIPS has a multitalented IT team working on a system for time series etc. Frank Webb mentioned two projects, with the goals to use modern IT tools to deliver GPS products. Work on a portal that links GPS analysis and products is under way, and in a next step, this is intended to be linked with modeling, too.
Bernd Richter cautioned not to be too ambitious with the GGOS portal. According to him, the portal should be restricted to meta data and links to the other services. Thus, data should be accessible through catalogues. Markus Rothacher supported this view and stated that he considers a distributed data base as a necessity for GGOS.
6 Preparation of the 7-th Steering Committee Meeting
The 7-th Steering Committee meeting was tentatively scheduled to take place on Friday, December 15, 2006, in San Francisco. However, it may be moved to Tuesday, December 12, 2006.Markus Rothacher presented a draft agenda, which was discussed and augmented. Ruth Neilan suggested to consider during the SC7 what should be done at the IUGG with respect to GGOS. Supporting this suggestion, Markus Rothacher mentioned that there will be two sessions on GGOS.
The draft agenda with the modifications resulting from the discussions is available here as html .
7 The 2007 GGOS Retreat and 2007 and 2008 Workshops
Asked by Markus Rothacher to do so, Hans-Peter Plag introduced the topics of the 2007 GGOS Retreat and Workshop. Based on the proposal prepared prior to the SC6 (see here ), he described several options for a Spring Retreat in North America and a Fall Workshop in Europe.Concerning the Workshop, Zuheir Altamimi commented that a 2007 Fall Workshop might be too early after the IUGG meeting in July. However, Ruth Neilan stated that the opportunity to have the GGOS Workshop co-located with a Geohazards workshop and to have the Workshop at a Space Agency should be used.
Hans-Peter Plag pointed out that the combination of InSAR and GNSS and the general role of InSAR for GGOS could be suitable topics for the Workshop. John Dow emphasized the importance of the opportunity to meet with ESA, and saw several positive aspects in organizing the workshop as proposed. Ruth Neilan considered that maybe a review of GGOS could be more appropriate than a Workshop. This led to the agreement that the event should have a strong outreach component. As a result of the discussion, the SC decided to organize the 2007 GGOS Workshop in November 2007 at ESRIN, Frascati, Italy, in conjunction with the Third IGOS-P Geohazards Workshop.
Action Item GGOS-SC-6-3: Hans-Peter Plag to inform the GARS-IGOS-P Geohazards Steering Committee of the positive decision to co-located the 2007 GGOS Workshop with the Third IGOS-P Geohazards Workshop. Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2006-10-19.
The discussion of various options for the 2007 GGOS Retreat led to the decision that the Retreat would take place in the Week of February 19, 2007, preferably at the Mandalay Beach Hotel, Oxnard, California. If necessary, a window one week earlier could also be considered.
It was suggested to have the retreat from Tuesday, February 20, to Thursday, February, 22, 2007. However, the option to start on Monday was also discussed. In any case, the planning should give room for additional WG meetings and a meeting of the GGOS2020 Writing Team.
Action Item GGOS-SC-6-4: Ruth Neilan to clarify The three chairs to decide whether the SC-7 can be moved to Tuesday, December 12, 2006. Responsible: Ruth Neilan, Deadline: 2006-10-22.
8 2007 ToR for GGOS
Markus Rothacher introduced the key issues concerning the current GGOS ToR, which are in conflict with the IAG By-Laws in several points and emphasized that a plan of action for the prepartion of the ToR for acceptance by the IAG Executive Committee at IUGG in Perugia has to be set up. He pointed out that the process towards new ToR needs to be started, since it might turn out to be a lengthy one. The main goal of this process is to bring the GGOS structure into agreement with the By-Laws. The main critical issues of the current ToR and options to reconcile the conflicts with the IAG By-Laws were summarized prior to the SC meeting by Hans-Peter Plag (see the summary here ).Ruth Neilan explained that IAG recently restructured their By-Laws, and the current By-Laws, which give the definition for a IAG Project, were accepted in 2003. The original ToR were written with these By-Laws in mind. In 2005 and early 2006, the inherited ToR were edited, with the goal to get more people engaged in building GGOS. This led to a large Steering Committee and the establishment of a smaller Executive Committee. At the IAG Executive Meeting in Cairns, members voiced concerns that the ToR were violating the By-Laws.
Chopo Ma asked where IAG did get the ideas for the structure of projects as reflected in the By-Laws. Markus Rothacher expressed the believe that these rules come from a higher level than IAG, and that is why the Casini Committee would have to be involved if any changes of the By-Laws would be requested.
Markus Rothacher stepped through the individual points listed in the summary . In the subsequent discussion, Hermann Drewes stated that he does not see any problem in defining service and GEO representatives as subgroups of the GGOS project, which would solve the issues IV and V.
Hans-Peter Plag pointed out that most of the members at large could be replaced by representatives of regional implementations, which would be considered as sub groups. Markus Rothacher responded that this would need a more formal approach to define what a regional organization of GGOS would be. Bente Lilja Bye pointed out that GOOS has a number of suborganization without a well defined structure, which causes some confusion. She asked GGOS to take a careful approach to the regional organizations.
Chopo Ma asked whether the potential solutions are first taken informally to the IAG Executive Committee, before the new ToR are drafted. Markus Rothacher confirmed this, which led to the action item:
Action Item GGOS-SC-6-5: Markus Rothacher to discuss informally with the IAG Executive Committee the potential options for the future GGOS ToR in order to ensur by the IAG EC. Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Deadline: 2006-12-01.
9 GGOS Meeting Schedule
The GGOS meeting schedule was already discussed earlier. A full overview is also available at http://geodesy.unr.edu/ggos/sc/meetings/ and http://geodesy.unr.edu/ggos/ggos_meetings.php .
10 Any other business
Wolfgang Schluetter reported that the government of Canada announced the closure of VLBI stations in Canada, namely Algonquin, which is very important as a long-time station, and Yellowknife. As a first reaction, IVS sent a letter to the Canadian government. He asked that also others (including IAG) should write letters.
Ruth Neilan considered that maybe a delegation is needed to actually go and visit the Canadian government. Hans-Peter Plag expressed that GEO should be involved in either this delegation or in a formal process.
Chopo Ma pointed out that the person who informed IVS about this also said that the argument from NRCan, stating that the Canadian government had a moral duty to continue the observations, was not taken well by the government.
Markus Rothacher explained that if GGOS should take an action, then he would like to know how that should be done, so that it is coordinated with the other activities.
Action Item GGOS-SC-6-6: Chopo Ma and Wolfgang Schluetter to inform Markus Rothacher what actions should be taken concerning the closure of the Canadian VLBI sites. Responsible: Chopo Ma, Wolfgang Schluetter, Deadline: 2006-10-31.
Bente Lilja Bye stated that she had already mentioned most issues related to the GGOS data portal and only added a few comments concerning Google Earth. It should be further investigated how this tool could be utilized for data presentation. Ruth Neilan took the opportunity to point out that it is important to ensure that the domain www.ggos.org does not expire.
Action Item GGOS-SC-6-7: Markus Rothacher to ensure that the domain www.ggos.org does not expire. Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Deadline: 2006-10-31.
Bente Lilja Bye mentioned that she had listed a few changes necessary on the GGOS main web pages. Hans-Peter Plag informed that previous messages to Katrin Gundrum had led to very fast corrections. He also had collected several comments, and suggested that Bente Lilja Bye together with him sends a mail to Katrin Gundrum with suggested corrections and changes for the GGOS Web pages.
Action Item GGOS-SC-6-8: Bente Lilja Bye and Hans-Peter Plag to inform Katrin Gundrum about critical issues related to the GGOS web pages at www.ggos.org. Responsible: Bente Lilja Bye, Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2006-10-31.
11 Summary of Action Items
Action Item GGOS-SC-6-1: The three chairs to decide whether the SC-7 can be moved to Tuesday, December 12, 2006. Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Hans-Peter Plag, Ruth Neilan, Deadline: 2006-10-22.
Action Item GGOS-SC-6-2: Hans-Peter Plag to clarify whether there should be a GGOS2020 Writing Team meeting co-located with the AGU Fall meeting in San Francisco. Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2006-11-15.
Action Item GGOS-SC-6-3: Hans-Peter Plag to inform the GARS-IGOS-P Geohazards Steering Committee of the positive decision to co-located the 2007 GGOS Workshop with the Third IGOS-P Geohazards Workshop. Responsible: Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2006-10-19.
Action Item GGOS-SC-6-4: Ruth Neilan to clarify The three chairs to decide whether the SC-7 can be moved to Tuesday, December 12, 2006. Responsible: Ruth Neilan, Deadline: 2006-10-22.
Action Item GGOS-SC-6-5: Markus Rothacher to discuss informally with the IAG Executive Committee the potential options for the future GGOS ToR in order to ensur by the IAG EC. Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Deadline: 2006-12-01.
Action Item GGOS-SC-6-6: Chopo Ma and Wolfgang Schluetter to inform Markus Rothacher what actions should be taken concerning the closure of the Canadian VLBI sites. Responsible: Chopo Ma, Wolfgang Schluetter, Deadline: 2006-10-31.
Action Item GGOS-SC-6-7: Markus Rothacher to ensure that the domain www.ggos.org does not expire. Responsible: Markus Rothacher, Deadline: 2006-10-31.
Action Item GGOS-SC-6-8: Bente Lilja Bye and Hans-Peter Plag to inform Katrin Gundrum about critical issues related to the GGOS web pages at www.ggos.org. Responsible: Bente Lilja Bye, Hans-Peter Plag, Deadline: 2006-10-31.
End of Minutes