The state of OpenSearch and the way forward for Discovery

If we are not successful in obtaining a plenary talk for 'Relevancy 101 and hackathon' then we will add it to this session if possible.
 

• Presentations that are associated with this session are attached.
• OPeNDAP guidelines have been returned to the Best Practices.
  • Suggestion:  Publishing the guidelines as a paper for review and feedback by the greater community.
• OpenSearch Audit:
  • OpenSearch validator tool has been applied to 20 different organizations (see slides for the listing of the organizations).
  • Key success and problem areas are highlighted.
• Outreach activities for the Best Practices are planned.
• Comment: Based on recent experience with EarthCube, the knowledge of OpenSearch appears to be growing, which is encouraging.
• Comment: In order to improve interoperability, it is important to promote the validator and the Best Practices to encourage adoption by the wider community.
  • Related comment: It is also crucial to demonstrate the value of the Best Practices and how it benefits those who might consider OpenSearch.

• Catalog Service for the Web (CSW)
  • The definition of CSW is provided (also included in the presentation slides).
  • The rational for the use of CSW are also presented.
  • The API for CSW can be obtained from the following link: https://cmr.earthdata.nasa.gov/csw/collections
  • Possible uses of CSW are:
    • Finding collections by using "GetRecords".
    • Describing parameters by using "GetDomain"
  • CSW supports:
    • ISO MENDS and CSW ISO standard as part of its output schemas.
    • Several query parameters.
  • The key benefits/characteristics of CSW are presented.
  • Additional features/capabilities, focusing on the granules, are planned.
    • The next revision will be 3.0.

• CSW Best Practices
  • CSW is a widely used earth data discovery standard, but it could be verbose. As a result, the development of Best Practices could help with the understanding and adoption of the standard.
  • The following characteristics of CSW were discussed specifically:
    • GetCapabilities
    • GetRecords
    • GetRecordById
    • DescribeRecord
    • GetDomain

• Validation of Services, Data and Metadata:
  • Link to presentation for "Validation of Service, Data, and Metadata":  http://bit.ly/2a1Ttm5
  • It is important for us to validate services because it is vital to ensure the needs of the users could be met properly.
  • Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is responsible for more than 60 standards.
    • Includes several working groups that help facilitate collaboration among volunteer organizations and portal users.
  • Conformance is defined as "fulfillment of specified requirements", which is also defined as the same as "compliance".
  • Discussion of how implementations can get OGC certification is provided.
    • Proof of implementation certificate can also be made available.
    • Five steps: 
      • Test in the OGC free testing facility
      • Apply for certification online
      • pay for use of license
      • Product appears as compliant in the OGC database
      • Organizations promote their certification
  • There is a suite of tests that are available and can be test with OGC.  Additional tests are planned for 2016.
    • The types of tests available include encoding (ex: metadata in XML), servers (ex: SOS), and client (ex: WMS 1.3).
  • There are many channels for supporting the adoption of OGC standards including open source/community collaboration, dedicated tools, and public forum.
  • OGC is making efforts to ensure the testing process is as user friendly as possible, including the web-based testing interface and reporting format.
  • Testing with OGC is not only available in the US, but also in Europe.
  • Community Inventory of EarthCube Resources for Geosciences Interoperability (CINERGI) is a key collaborator with OGC.
    • Schema, Rules not enforced by schema, and community rules are the three levels of community inventories validations discussed.
  • A demo of the OGC Validator is provided (log in is required).
    • Link to the demo site: http://cite-dev-03.opengeospatial.org/teamengine/
  • OGC Reference Implementation website is also shown (log in is required): https://cite.opengeospatial.org/reference
  • For additional information can be found under Luis' (presenter) blog: http://www.opengeospatial.org/blogs/luis-bermudez