[GO-ESSP] Proposed netCDF attribute convention for dataset discovery

[Bryan Lawrence]

Hi Ethan

I've been meaning to reply to this ... so reminding me by sending it to 
GO-ESSP was a good thing :-)

Firstly, I think this is a good idea.

I only have one tiny reservation with the syntax, and that's where you use a 
controlled vocab, I think you should indicate the domain first then the 
vocab. So, for cdm_data_type, I think it would be better to make it
cdm_domain: data type namespace
cdm_data_type: from the namespace enumeration

A more generic issue that is not solved by dublin core (which I can see the 
influence of in what you have), is that we need to think about authorship for 
data (and metadata). I would like us to be able to get to a position where 
the creator(s) of the data corresponded to authors in the traditional sense 
with contributors perhaps being the folk who did the metadata etc ...
(not solved in the sense that it doesn't give guidance).

Anyway I plan (which means it may not happen) to write down some thoughts on 
authorship in this context, but I'd be interested in what you think and how 
you would play this in your proposed conventions.

Cheers,
Bryan





On Tuesday 21 June 2005 23:39, Ethan Davis wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Sorry I forgot to include GO-ESSP in the original distribution of this.
> (And sorry to those who got multiple copies for cross-posting to so many
> lists.)
>
> We've been working on drafting a document for a netCDF attribute
> convention to help facilitate dataset discovery. The attributes parallel
> the "digital library metadata" defined in the THREDDS catalog
> specification
> (http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/projects/THREDDS/tech/catalog/InvCatalogSpec.h
>tml).
>
> The attributes will be used by THREDDS tools to extract metadata from
> datasets and export to Dublin Core, DIF, ADN, FGDC, ISO 19115, etc.
> Here's the link to the document:
>
> http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/netcdf-java/formats/DataDiscoveryAttCo
>nvention.html
>
> We would appreciate your thoughts and comments.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ethan

-- 
Bryan Lawrence
Head, NCAS/British Atmospheric Data Centre
Director, CCLRC/Environmental Data Archival and Associated Research
badc.nerc.ac.uk, home.badc.rl.ac.uk/lawrence, +44 1235 445012
(CCLRC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, OX11 0QX)