Community Services

Status Report: October 2014 - March 2015

Doug Dirks, Jeff Weber, Joshua Young

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:

• Some highlights:
• A Multi-platform Observing System in the Balearic Islands
• 2015 Unidata Users Workshop: Save the Date
• Unidata Staff at AGU Fall 2014 Meeting
• HIWPP Seeks Engagement with Scientific Community
• Unidata Summer Student Internship Available!
• AMS 2015 Conference Highlights from the Unidata Staff
• Software release information
• Community job postings
• Community meetings and other announcements
• Dependencies, challenges, problems, and risks include:
• Finding community members willing to contribute stories (or story ideas) for the blog is an ongoing challenge

Community Outreach and Services

• Progress has been made on the following:
• Representing the Unidata community in professional society events such as the AMS and AGU annual meetings
• Actively engaged in the UCAR Education Working Group and UCAR-Connect to explore novel techniques and applications for the educational community
• Work with UPC staff to set up and maintain EDEX servers for equipment award grantees
• ERAU is enjoying EDEX access in the cloud for both the Daytona and Prescott campuses as well as the Phoenix and Flagstaff WFO's
• Creation of the Teaching Resource Network on RAMADDA servers, the search page can be found here
• Continue to work closely with NOAA to distribute The HRRR, FIM, and HIWPP model output and coordinate Unidata's tools to effectively make use of this model output
• Maintain effective communication with CUAHSI by being an active member of the CUAHSI HIS standing committee, which we helped get going by being at the first meeting in 2000 in Austin
• Work closely with NCAR scientists and the CUAHSI HIS group by attending the NFIE workshop March 16-19 in Tuscaloosa at the National Water Center
• Engage with NCEP to discuss the contents of the CONDUIT and NOAAPort feeds streams to more effectively serve our community
• Creation of a Data Management Resource Center to collect information about tools and best practices with the goal of helping community members prepare data management plans
• Explored the application of agile software development principles to data management in an effort called Agile Data Curation
• Pilot site visits at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, Colorado State University, and University of Northern Colorado
• Engagement with NSF's Earthcube through the Liaison and Engagement Committees
• Planning for the 2015 Users Committee Workshop
• Release of survey on .25-degree GFS to CONDUIT users

Social Media Outreach Activities

• Progress has been made on the following:
• We continue to update the Facebook, Google+, and Twitter feeds.
• We continue to publish short videos/screencasts on the Unidata YouTube channel.
• Dependencies, challenges, problems, and risks include:
• Engagement with Unidata social media streams among community members is not particularly high

Planned Activities

Ongoing Activities

We plan to continue the following activies:

• NAWIPS migration to AWIPS II, including the overall AWIPS II project
• 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
• Further development of the Data Management Resource Center
• Further work on Agile Data Curation
• Site visits as the budget allows

New Activities

Over the next three months, we plan to organize or take part in the following:

• Additional community guides
• Further CONDUIT surveys regarding future data additions

Over the next twelve months, we plan to organize or take part in the following:

• Submit and present further talks on the Teaching Resouces Network and Data Management Resources Center at geoscience professional societies.
• Facilitate community identification of preferred data management policies and enforcement

Beyond a one-year timeframe, we plan to organize or take part in the following:

• Pursue funding to support a Data Management pilot project to implement Unidata services on several small geoscience projects

Areas for Committee Feedback

Community Services is requesting your feedback on the following topics:

1. Are there other areas that are ripe for a guide similar to the Data Management Resource Center?
   
2. What would help you to use the Teaching Resources Network?

Relevant Metrics

Statistics from the Community pages on the Unidata web site. Comparisons are made with statistics from the previous six-month period.

Prepared March 2015