----- Original Message ----- From: "Jennifer McLennan" <[log in to unmask]> To: maps-l Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 5:21 PM Subject: Nature: Agencies join forces to share data > From the March 22 issue of Nature. For the full text, see > http://ealerts.nature.com/cgi-bin24/DM/y/hc530SpivX0HjB0BOpY0EA > > Excerpt: > > The US government is considering a massive > plan to store almost all scientific data generated > by federal agencies in publicly accessible > digital repositories. The aim is for the kind of > data access and sharing currently enjoyed by > genome researchers via GenBank, or astronomers > via the National Virtual Observatory, but > for the whole of US science. > Scientists would then be able to access data > from any federal agency and integrate it into > their studies. For example, a researcher browsing > an online journal article on the spread of a > disease could not only pull up the underlying > data, but mesh them with information from > databases on agricultural land use, weather and > genetic sequences. > Nature has learned that a draft strategic > plan will be drawn up by next autumn by a > new Interagency Working Group on Digital > Data (IWGDD). It represents 22 agencies, > including the National Science Foundation > (NSF), NASA, the Departments of Energy, > Agriculture, and Health and Human Services, > and other government branches including the > Office of Science and Technology Policy. > The group’s first step is to set up a robust > public infrastructure so all researchers have > a permanent home for their data. One option > is to create a national network of online data > repositories, funded by the government and > staffed by dedicated computing and archiving > professionals. It would extend to all communities > a model similar to the Arabidopsis > Information Resource, in which > 20 staff serve 13,000 registered > users and 5,000 labs. > > -- > Jennifer McLennan > Director of Communications > SPARC > (202) 296-2296 ext. 121 > (202) 872-0884 Fax > http://www.arl.org/sparc >