North American Data Model Steering Committee

Fourteenth meeting, April 27, 2005, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Attending:

Participating guests:

Reports:

  1. Data Model Design Technical Team:

    The Data Model Design Team met in the morning, to discuss unfinished tasks and potential new activities. Unfinished tasks include a much overdue response to the USGS review (Dave Bedford).

    New tasks include posting to the NADM website: 1) any science vocabularies that could be used in C1, and 2) implementations and variants of C1:

    • Science vocabularies -- Peter, Steve, and Loudon will find all relevant vocabularies, and will submit the list to the NADM website. That list will be accompanied by a proposed webpage design and a short description of what is contained in the list, and why (i.e., they will formally define the criteria for including vocabularies in the list). It was decided that this list must be confined to dictionaries (vocabularies or wordlists, hierarchical and otherwise, that are accompanied by definitions). The intention is to provide NADM implementors with some substance to the data model, and to encourage them to refine the vocabularies, to identify vocabularies that are not included in our listing, and to propose new ones.
    • Implementations and variants -- following the template used for v.4.3, the DMDT will ask that the documentation of these implementations and variants (e.g., Victoria Geological Survey's, GSC's Oracle, NGMDB's) identify how they are similar to, and different from, C1.

    Finally, the GSC is attempting a testbed using OGC standards, to wrap databases in GML format in order to demonstrate data exchange and interoperability. This is related to what the Modeling and Encoding Task Group of the IUGSŐs CGI Data Model Collaboration Working Group (see https://www.seegrid.csiro.au/twiki/bin/view/CGIModel/WebHome) is planning for databases in several countries. The GSC has offered to expand their testbed to include databases prepared by the NGMDB. Boyan and Dave will discuss this opportunity.

  2. Perth meeting:

    In late 2004, Boyan, Steve, Eric, and Bruce attended in Perth a meeting of the CGI's Modeling and Encoding Task Group (see item #1, above). The Group decided to incorporate, with some amendment, significant sections of the NADM C1 model for geologic maps and the XMML model for boreholes and station data, and to attempt to build an international standard for data exchange based on GML encoding. The CGI group is interested in geoscience vocabulary, hence the DMDT activity (noted above) to inventory useful science vocabularies.

  3. Data Interchange Technical Team:

    The Data Interchange Technical Team has finished the GML encoding of C1, and this work was well received at the Perth meeting. Documentation of the coding remains to be done, and that will be completed before the next NADM meeting. This will complete the DITT's current task, and so the NADMSC should then discuss any further DITT tasks.

  4. Discussion of the Science Language Technical Team:

    The Science Language Technical Team in late 2004 completed its tasks. The Chair (Matti) subsequently resigned from the NADMSC, and the Committee has decided to follow the approach that it used for the data model v.4.3 -- the Committee will, for the foreseeable future, receive comments on the SLTT reports and, at a future meeting, will discuss when (or if) to assign new tasks to this Team.

  5. NADMSC website

    Dave has had to assume webmaster duties for the new NADM website; therefore, please send any additions and revisions to him.

  6. Next meeting:

    Salt Lake City, UT, during the week of the GSA meeting.