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Members of Unidata's two governing committees gathered in Boulder in late October 2011 for a joint meeting to share information and ideas between the committees and with Unidata Program Center staff.
The three-day meeting began on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 with an orientation for new members of the Users and Policy committees. New committee members Martin Baxter, Jennifer Collins, Gerry Creager, David Dempsey, and Bart Geerts heard brief presentations from the UPC staff, and described how they and their institutions use Unidata software, data, and services. (For some background on the new committee members, see Unidata Welcomes New Committee Members.
During the afternoon of October 26, the Users committee met separately for the following reports and discussions:
- Status reports from from UPC staff
- A description from USGS representative Rich Signell of integration between the THREDDS Data Server, ARCGis software from ESRI, and OPeNDAP clients via a python shell in the ERSI products.
- A report on the status of CONDUIT from Rebecca Cosgrove, who represents NOAA/NCEP on the Users committee
- A report from committee member Kevin Tyle on the use of Unidata software and services at the department of Atmospheric Sciences, UAlbany
- A demonstration and discussion of recent changes to the Unidata web site
- Planning for the 2012 Triennial Workshop
Thursday, October 27th brought members of the Users and Policy committees together for a full day of discussion and presentations, including:
- Unidata Program Center director Mohan Ramamurthy's status report
- A report on developments at NOAA from representative LeRoy Spayd
- A report on use of Unidata technologies within NASA from Peter Griffith, NASA's representative on the Policy committee
- An update on the progress of the NAWIPS to AWIPS-II migration from Scott Jacobs, representing NCEP.
- A live demonstration of the current AWIPS-II pre-release software by Unidata developer Michael James
- A live demonstration of new features slated to be released in the next version of Unidata's IDV software by Unidata developers Yuan Ho and Sean Arms
- An update on NSF budget and priorities from Cliff Jacobs and Bernard Grant, including a discussion of EarthCube
- A group discussion of the Unidata strategic plan
- A presentation on Unidata's Open Source directions from UPC Technical Product Manager Ethan Davis
- A presentation on the possibility of closer linkage between Unidata and the Space Science and Engineering Center in Wisconsin, for joint McIDAS-V / IDV development
The joint committee membership and UPC staff also thanked outgoing members Brian Colle, Brendon Hoch, Anton Kruger, and Larry Oolman for their service on the Users and Policy committees over the past three years. Members of both committees, along with UPC staff, continued the discussions over dinner at the NCAR mesa lab.
Friday, October 28th was reserved for discussions of the Policy committee. The committee met separately for the following reports and discussions:
- A Unidata budget report by Terry Mitchell
- A presentation by outgoing Policy committee member Anton Kruger on the use of NEXRAD radar data in hydrology
- Continued discussion of the Unidata strategic plan
- A discussion of involvement in the Triennial workshop by one or more Policy committee members
- A discussion of ideas for improving communication and cooperation with the WRF community
The combined meeting was useful to all, and the Unidata Program Center staff thank all of the committee members for traveling to Boulder to share their ideas and input.
