Community Services

Status Report: November 2012 - April 2013

Linda Miller, Doug Dirks, Jeff Weber

Strategic Focus Areas

Community Services supports the following goals described in Unidata Strategic Plan:

1. Enable widespread, efficient access to geoscience data
   We monitor and collaborate with data sources to stay apprised of impending changes and to advocate for the needs of our user community. We provide user workshops, tutorials, and community workshops to help build supportive relationships between community members.
2. Develop and provide open-source tools for effective use of geoscience data
   We promote Unidata tools and software for multi-disciplinary use, with an eye toward finding additional research and educational communities that can benefit from our work.
3. Provide cyberinfrastructure leadership in data discovery, access, and use
   We work with government and industry data providers to secure access to data for Unidata community members.
4. Build, support, and advocate for the diverse geoscience community
   We coordinate with our governing committees to find ways to expand Unidata's community participation. We use our web site, electronic newsletters, and social media to keep community members informed about enhanced data services, software tools, and cyberinfrastructure.
   
   We participate in UCAR/NCAR and NSF projects for underrepresnted populations and minority communities (SOARS, AIHEC, outreach to HBCUs). We provide services and tools to facilitate education and research in diverse communities. We work to broaden the Unidata community by participating in student and professional conferences.

Activities Since the Last Status Report

News@Unidata blog

Posts to the News@Unidata blog appear regularly, but not on a specific schedule. Some highlights:

• Using the IDV to Study Produce Transport in West Africa
• OGC Approves CF Extension to NetCDF Core Data Model Standard
• Free Satellite Archive Data Access for the Unidata Academic Community
• AMS 2013 Conference Highlights from the Unidata Staff
• Rutgers University Makes Real-Time Marine Data Accessible
• POES Data Captured at University of Hawaii
• Software release information
• Community job postings
• Community meetings and other announcements

Community Outreach and Services

• Presented papers and chaired sessions at the AGU meeting in San Francisco
• Active presence at the 2013 Annual AMS
• Invited presentation at the Reinsurance Association of America regarding future impacts storms might have on NE United States coastlines
• UPC had a table at the AMS Student Conference during the Annual Meeting in Austin; UPC had a booth during the remainder of the Annual Meeting - Scott Jacobs, from NCEP joined Michael James and other UPC staff by providing AWIPS II demos and fielding questions. Yuan Ho and others demonstrated IDV
• Participate in weekly AWIPS II meetings with NCEP Headquarters and NCEP Centers technical staff discussing progress and technical issues
• The Russell L. DeSouza award will be presented to Larry Oolman at the April 2013 Users Committee meeting. (Larry was also recognized by the University of Wyoming.)
• Planning, support, and input for Unidata's strategic plan
• Participating in the AMS's Committee to Improve Climate Change Communcations (CICCC)
• Created How to Acknowledge Unidata page for the web site
• Conducted community survey on Information Technology enviornment
• Worked with Unidata system administrators to install and configure a touch-screen display highlighting Unidata data streams using the IDV and AWIPS II. The display is at the entrance to the UPC office suite, and is visible to visitors to the FL-4 building.

Social Media Outreach Activities

• We have continued to update the Facebook and Twitter feeds.
• We are investigating establishing a Google+ presence. Maintaining a G+ presence may not be worth the effort.
• We are actively planning a YouTube channel for short videos/screencasts. We will coordinate with UPC staff to create short videos to demonstrate key functionality of Unidata software.

Planned Activities

Ongoing Activities

We plan to continue the following activities:

• NAWIPS migration to AWIPS II, including the overall AWIPS II project
• Organized a local AWIPS II training session in Boulder with National Weather Services trainers from Kansas City. The training is taking place April 8-12; several UPC staff members are participating along with other scientists from the Boulder area.
• Ongoing development of news articles for publication through News@Unidata
• Continue to support and contribute to governing committees
• Seminars
• Outreach
• Engagement with professional societies
• Triennial workshop planning and coordination