ESDS Formulation Pages     

Earth Science Data Systems Technology Infusion Working Group Charter

 

Purpose

The purpose of the Earth Science Data System Technology Infusion Working Group is to enable NASA's Earth Science Enterprise to reach its research, application, and education goals more quickly and cost effectively through widespread adoption of key emerging information technologies. The working group will develop specific approaches and a guiding vision for technology infusion that will help the ESE community draw upon technologies emerging from relevant technology development programs and infuse them into operational ESE information systems.

Scope

The working group is concerned primarily with information technologies that 1) provide capabilities critical to the ESE mission & vision, 2) have been substantially developed (TRL6-9), but that have not been widely deployed and may be slow to be adopted because of the unique characteristics of Earth science, and 3) cannot be obtained simply through reuse of mature subsystems. The working group activities are limited to the established scope and defined contribution of the projects represented by the participants; that is, there is no separate funding for performing unplanned technology deployments.

Technical Approach

The working group will use a variety of approaches to accomplish the stated goals and objectives.

• Operational Deployment Case Studies. The working group will examine technology infusion in participant projects, and use these projects as test cases to validate technology infusion strategies and capture the lessons learned from actual deployment efforts.
• Outreach & Enablement. The working group will collect, evaluate, and disseminate information derived from the case studies and other sources to facilitate ESE and community technology infusion efforts. It will work to identify barriers to technology infusion as well as incentives that can help overcome those barriers. The working group will also develop and disseminate a capability vision and a list of key technologies to help guide technology infusion efforts. As resources allow, the working group will facilitate communications between technology providers and data service providers (e.g., through workshops), and provide supporting mechanisms to enable technology infusion.
• Technology Infusion Process Improvement. The working group will assess enterprise processes related to technology infusion and recommend enhancements to help make them more effective. It will also recommend metrics (in conjunction with the metrics working group) to assess the effectiveness of alternative technology infusion strategies.

Tasks & Outputs

Near term tasks for the working group include the following:

• Establish a detailed work plan consistent with the goals and objectives of the working group. Output: Tech WG Work Plan
• Create a capability vision for ESE information systems that is linked to the ESE science, application, and education goals. Output: ESE Information Systems Capability Vision
• Identify key technologies that, if broadly deployed, will help to achieve the capability vision for ESE. Output: Key Technologies List
• Review community-based technology infusion processes (e.g., OGC, others) and recommend changes to the current ESE technology infusion process. Output: Technology Infusion Process Recommendations
• Define the scope of technology infusion by characterizing the technologies & systems considered. Output: Revised Working Group Charter
• Recommend specific approaches to operational deployment of key technologies using REASoN CAN projects as test cases for lessons learned. Output: Technology Infusion Strategies and Lessons Learned

Long-term tasks for the working group include the following:

• Develop a list of recommended technology infusion initiatives with estimated costs & benefits of each.
• Recommend incentives that would encourage broader deployment of useful technologies (e.g., by offsetting deployment risks).
• Identify and help remove barriers to technology infusion including those related to licensing and release processes.

Expected Benefits

Expected outcomes from working group's activities are 1) broader recognition of capabilities & technologies needed to achieve ESE goals to help focus technology investments, 2) better understanding of technology infusion barriers leading to specific strategies resulting in faster adoption of key technologies, and 3) improved technology infusion processes that better meet enterprise needs. Expected impacts include faster achievement of ESE goals resulting from effective technology infusion across distributed PI processing systems and other science data providers.

Membership & Chair

The working group is open to individuals able to contribute to the goals of the working group, including REASoN CAN awardees, ESIP Federation members, ESE staff, and others.

The working group will be co-chaired by a NASA representative assigned by NASA, and a REASoN CAN representative selected by the working group.

Schedule

The working group is expected to operate during the life cycle of the REASoN CAN (approximately 5 years). The co-chairs will serve for one-year renewable terms. Because information technology is continually evolving, the working group outputs such as detailed work plans and key technologies lists will be revisited periodically.

Authority

The working group is chartered by and funded by the REASoN CAN. It is authorized to recommend technology infusion initiatives to NASA's ESE.

Background

The deployment of new technologies into operational systems, also know as technology infusion, has always been an important part of providing new capabilities needed for Earth science. However, new strategies for achieving ESE science and application goals envision a much more diverse and distributed set of data service providers. This implies that current technology infusion processes geared toward contractor-developed data systems must be adapted for far greater community participation. Recognizing the potential need for change in this area, the Earth Science Data System formulation team examined current technology infusion processes and identified three concerns:

• Barriers to technology utilization could prevent NASA's ESE from realizing the benefits of information technology development programs;
• Technology infusion initiatives cannot be effectively directed without a clearer understanding of the functional capabilities needed to enable the ESE research and application goals; and
• The ESTO process for AIST strategic planning basically fits the needs of ESE objectives for technology identification and investment management, but needs to be enhanced to improve infusion of key technologies across enterprise and community systems.

The study team also made three related recommendations:

• Fund efforts to bridge current gaps between technology developers and the data service providers who are potential technology users;
• Develop an ESE Data Systems capability vision that helps to capture, communicate, and refine the community's understanding of the critical capabilities that will enable the next generation of ESE research and applications; and
• Adopt and tailor the AIST processes for technology needs and gap analysis, while leveraging and tailoring community-based technology infusion processes such as those employed by the OGC Interoperability Program and the DOD ACTD Program.

The Earth Science Data System Technology Infusion Working Group is the primary mechanism for addressing these concerns and recommendations.

Additional background information can be found on the Technology Infusion Study Team page. 
Inquiries regarding joining the working group and other matters should be directed to the chair, Karen Moe, or co-chair, Rob Raskin.