Date sent: Tue, 04 May 1999 15:28:13 -0500

From: "Donald R. Johnson" <donj@ssec.wisc.edu>

To: John Snow <jsnow@ou.edu>, Cathy Manduca <cmanduca@carleton.edu>

I wish to clarify Cathy’s message concerning my desire to have my abstract distributed. She raised this possibility after our discussion on some of the issues last Friday. I am still concerned how several underlying issues are to be addressed. Cathy has rightfully called attention to the need to focus the thinking of the workshop participants on the questions of major importance and the need to move forward. I believe that the abstract calls attention to several of the relevant questions that deserve consideration, one of which is bringing together a constituency and instilling a demand and acceptance of ownership by a broad constituency. In lieu of the abstract, I suggest that the key questions and issues stated in the abstract along with others be itemized in orderly fashion such as to form and function.

I am now paraphrasing Ed Lorenz’s three important questions. These are: What needs to be done? What is tractable? Of the two what is common among the two that must be done to ensure the success of an Earth System Science Digital Library? I propose that we challenge the Steering Committee "and later workshop participants" with these three questions possibly on the Web, or in your introduction John. In any event, I will emphasize the three questions in my 15 minutes introduction on Monday afternoon, May 24.

Early on the Steering Committee needs to identify the constituencies in order to get the proper mix of disciplinary backgrounds, interests and expertise at the workshop. This identification affects both Working Groups 1 and 2, since the membership determines disciplinary interests and the resource needs of the library are determined by the membership. After a broad casting of the membership, the Steering Committee in ensuing discussions and eventually Workshop Participants should give particular attention to sharpening their perception on these matters.

I have spent several hours studying the catalog descriptions for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and Geology and Geophysics in the University of Wisconsin. They are available on line under the College of Letters and Sciences or at the following Web address: http://www.wisc.edu/pubs./ug/10lettsci/depts/geolgeo.html (also atmocean.html). In attempting to create a digital library for Earth Systems for the upper division courses, the challenge to state needs and create common resources will be particularly challenging. Clearly there are distinct differences between those geology and geophysics courses for majors which focus on the earth itself, the solid part of the earth, as apart from both Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences where upper division courses are almost totally directed towards the fluid system in motion. This division of interest carries over into the types of data and subject matter in the classroom. I suspect that both prior to and after the Steering Committee meeting several people should continue to explore these matters with the aim of proposing candidate systems for discussion at the workshop. At the workshop, I suggest that presentations be made which focus on the needs by and current capabilities within the disciplines of meteorology, geology/geophysics, oceanography, life sciences as well as cross/multi disciplinary earth system science.

To be honest, I am uneasy about immediately creating a new confederation. Potentially, there are too many roadblocks emanating from conflicts and interests of different professional societies and disciplinary interests. As an early option it seems to me that the formation of an open ended activity with a strong executive steering/advisory committee under UCAR should be considered as a start up option where UCAR simply early on plays a support role, however, with the clear understanding that a larger open-ended confederation controls the effort and is responsible for governance and success. In effect, UCAR is largely a silent member.

While we will have a greater appreciation of these matters after the workshop, success will depend on creating a vision and a strategic plan of action along with clear and potential objectives where a strong standing executive steering committee activity provides oversight during the crucial formative years. We can create documents, however, action will be the determining factor for success.

Don Johnson

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