Review of TCODE activities – September, 2002

 

 

1)     Terms of Reference

The terms of reference for TCODE include:

·        Recommend formation of ad hoc task groups to deal with specific functions of TCODE

·        Review progress of task groups and provide Annual Reports

·        Develop strategic plans to meet these requirements

·        Identify the data management needs of PICES

·        Advise PICES Secretariat on its data exchange activities

 

2)     Strategic Approach

·        use existing national/international data centers, programs, techniques whenever possible

·        “encourage” migration of data to existing data centers

·        assist PICES scientists to find and obtaining data of interest

·        use WWW/Internet to provide information and “pointers”

·        provide a “home” for useful datasets that are not available elsewhere

 

3)     Summary of activities and progress

Date

Major Activities

1994-1995

from PICES III

Nemuro, Japan

·        Decision 94/S/4 – replace WG4 on Data Exchange with Technical Committee on Data Exchange

1995-1996

from PICES IV

Qingdao, China

·        Identified activities – Cruise Reports, Ship Schedules

1996-1997

From PICES V

Nanaimo, Canada

·        TCODE Inventory of Long Time Series available on the WWW

·        Supported Bering Sea Fisheries Oceanography Metadatabase Proposal

·        Provide guidance to Secretariat on use of WWW and internet resources for PICES business

1997-1998

from PICES VI

Pusan, Korea

·        TCODE assisted in compilation of Bering Sea metadatabase

·        Expansion/enhancement nf Inventory of Long Time Series

·        Improvements to List of Internet Resources for PICES Scientists

1998-1999

from PICES VII

Fairbanks, Alaska

·        merge contents of TCODE  Inventory of Long Time Series with Bering Sea Metadatabase

·        further work  on Internet Resources for PICES Scientists

1999-2000

from PICES VIII

Vladivostok, Russia

·        TCODE Workshop on Data Visualization

·        joint WG 13/JGOFS NPTT/TCODE Workshop on CO2 data (Tsukuba, Japan- prior to PICES IX)

2000-2001

from PICES IX

Hakodate, Japan

·        TCODE Electronic Poster Session

·        CO2 Data Integration Workshops (with WG13)

2001-2002

from PICES X

Victoria, Canada

·        TCODE electronic Poster Session – National and Regional Data Centres

·        Joint work with WG17

·        New Chairman (Igor Shevchenko) appointed.

·        Organize PICES/GLOBEC Workshop on Data Management for PICES XI

·        Organize TCODE E-poster session on Data Systems to support Technological Advances in  Observation Systems

 

 

 

4)     TCODE Member participation at Annual Meeting

 

Meeting/Location

Canada

China

Japan

Korea

Russia

U.S.A

1995 - PICES IV

Qingdao, China

1

2

1

1

2

2

1996 - PICES V

Nanaimo, Canada

2

0

1

0

2

2

1997 - PICES VI

Pusan, Korea

1

1

2

2

2

2

1998- PICES VII

Fairbanks, Alaska

1

1

2

1

1

2

1999- PICES VIII

Vladivostok, Russia

1

1

2

1

2

2

2000 -  PICES IX

Hakodate, Japan

1

1

2

1

1

2

2001 - PICES X

Victoria, Canada

2

0

2

0

2

2

 

5)     Former Chairman’s comments

·        Terms of Reference are adequate. I don’t think they constrain the activities of TCODE.

·        Strategic approach is appropriate – to make optimal use of existing data centres/systems. There is still no good reason for PICES to operate a data centre.

·        We have not made much use of the provision to create ad hoc groups to work on specific issues.  There are a few reasons for this:

·        lack of enthusiasm amongst PICES participants (TCODE and others) for undertaking extra work

·        concern over the proliferation of these ad hoc groups

·        concern that a TCODE ad hoc group would have low status within PICES

·        In general, TCODE members find it difficult to represent their country (as opposed to their agency).  This limits the effectiveness of TCODE and may put some members in difficult positions in their home country.

·        Participation in TCODE activities has been a problem, as shown in the table above.  On the other hand, there have been some very active “un-official” contributors to and supporters of  the TCODE effort.

·        The PICES Secretariat does not presently possess enough internal "web" capability to support TCODE.  This shows up in the fact that they revamped the web site and lots (or at least, failed to rebuild) links to some substantial TCODE contributions.  I know that when I originally set up these pages, I did it all myself. I was expecting the Secretariat to develop some internal capability to post, and maintain the web site (with material contributed by TCODE) but not much has happened.

·        The TCODE workload has not been shared equitably.  This has reduced the effectiveness of TCODE and make the Chairman’s job more onerous than it should be.

 

 

6)     Suggestions for the Future (Future Strategic Plan)

·        Work with newly-formed Working Groups and other committees to see if there are data management issues that can be addressed by TCODE or by some ad hoc group as part of the WG workplan in the early stages of the WG.

·        Investigate these suggestions carefully to assess the level of effort required, expertise required in each PICES country and probability of success.  This will help filter out unreasonable requests. 

·        Monitor the progress of these activities to determine (clearly) where roadblocks exist.

·