Here is the current vision statement of EarthCube
EarthCube enables transformative geoscience by fostering a community committed to providing unprecedented discovery, access, and analysis of geoscience data.
The primary goal of membership in EarthCube, and indeed of the entire culture of the EarthCube organization is to support this vision. The EarthCube vision describes a future where geoscience data is openly shared, and where a new science, one based on an abundance of sharable data, assembles new knowledge about our planet. Certainly shared open source software and open access publishing are anticipated in this vision. The vision accepts that it will take a committed community of domain and data scientists to realize this goal.
What can we predict about the culture of a community committed to transformational geosciences? How is this different from the culture of a community pursuing geoscience currently? We need to start building out our imagination of what transformative geoscience will look like and do. One thing we might agree on is that this will be a much more open and collaborative effort.
Unprecedented data discovery, access, and analysis in the geosciences coupled with open science best practices will drive knowledge production to a new plateau. Many of today’s grand challenge questions about climate change, water cycles, human population interaction with ecosystems, and other arenas will no long be refractory to solution. For now, we can call the engine for this process “Open Geosciences” or OG for short. What will OG pioneers be doing, and how can EarthCube foster these activities?
- Pioneering OG scientists will collect new data using shared methodologies, workflows, and data formats.
- These OG scientists will describe their data effectively (through shared metadata) and contribute this to a shared repository.
- OG scientists will analyze their data with software tools that collect and maintain a record of the data provenance as well as metrics on the software platform.
- OG scientists will report out their findings in open access publications, with links to the data and software.
- OG scientists will peer review and add value to the work of others in open review systems.
- OG domain and data scientists will reuse open data to synthesize new knowledge, and to build and calibrate models.
- OG software engineers will collaborate on open software to improve capabilities and sustainability.
- OG scientists will share more than data. They will share ideas, and null results, questions and problems, building on the network effect of organizations such as EarthCube to grow collective intelligence.
- OG science funding agencies will work with OG communities to streamline research priority decisions and access to funding.
At this stage, EarthCube is in its most institutionally reflexive moment and is most responsive to new ideas. Like a Silicon Valley start-up flush with cash and enthusiasm, EarthCube is poised to build its future up from the ground. EarthCube can succeed in its vision without attempted to directly influence the embedded cultures of government organizations, tier one universities, professional societies, and commercial publishers. EarthCube will succeed by building its own intentional culture, starting with its membership model and focused on its vision. EarthCube will only transform geoscience by proving that its members can do better science faster and cheaper through their commitment to the modes of scientific collaboration now made possible through EarthCube. EarthCube will transform science by transforming the practices and the attitudes of its own members.
NASA image by Robert Simmon with ASTER data. Caption by Holli Riebeek with information and review provided by David Mayer, Robert Simmon, and Michael Abrams.
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