GEO Work Plan Symposium 2014

ID-04 Building a User-Driven GEOSS

Kathy Fontaine, US, Component POC

Take-Away Message

• We have LEARNED who our users are (sometimes generally, sometimes specifically), how to interact and engage them, how to pull their input into GEOSS, and how to improve our products

• However, we learned this by trial and error, and we can always do better!

What We’ve Learned About User Engagement• User Engagement = Gathering, Implementing, and Evaluating User

Requirements – not once, but over and over• User Engagement ≠ Assuming or Guessing or Waiting to hear what

someone thinks they want• Key Question for GEO – Who are the users of GEOSS??

– Decision makers, Governments, Scientists, Policy makers, Barb’s Mom– All of the above and then some!

• It’s not possible to build a truly user-driven GEOSS if – Everyone is a potential user, because it’s impossible to gather requirements from

everyone individually

Who GEO Thought its Users Would Be (Everyone)

“Globally, these benefits will be realized by a broad range of user communities, including (1) national, regional, and local decision-makers, (2) relevant international organizations responsible for the implementation of international conventions, (3) business, industry, and service sectors, (4) scientists and educators, and (5) the general public. Realizing the benefits of coordinated, comprehensive, and sustained Earth observations (i.e. the improvement of decision-making and prediction abilities) represents a fundamental step toward addressing the challenges articulated in the declarations of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals agreed at the Millennium Summit in 2000.” Framework Document

But, All is Not Lost!

• We can use many different approaches at once, but eventually we need to deal with the “p” word (priorities) or the “s” word (scope) to establish where to start, where to stop, and how to move from one user set to another– Or – avoid the “p” word and talk in terms of “upstream users” and “downstream

users,” leveraging the user networks already cultivated by the “upstream users”

• Building a provider-driven GEOSS is a valuable first step (what we’ve done/are doing), because once we crack the user code, there has to be a “there” there.

• The answer is that there is no SINGLE user engagement process, BUT we also cannot afford to be all things to all people just yet (maybe ever….).

Solutions – General Approaches• Some processes have been tried and have worked - direct

contact with the ‘Elusive User’– Integrated Global Observing System-Partnership, Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change, and other expert advisory board type processes

– Discipline-specific work (water strategy, Societal Benefit Area (SBA) assessments that appeared in the 10-Year Implementation Plan

– User Engagement sessions and Capacity Building sessions/workshops run by the User Interface and Capacity Building Committees, respectively

Solutions, cont’d• Direct contact with a policy/governance organization with a defined need

– GEO Global Land Agriculture Management– Global Forest Carbon Observing Initiative

• User Requirements Registry – response to the requirements laid out by Societal Benefit Area in the 10-year Implementation Plan

– Populated by IGOS-P parameters, by users who tested the system, and by the Earth Observations Requirements results of US-09-01a – parameters derived from a thorough document assessment (Precipitation Report is available – brochure outside on the table; full report available at http://sbageotask.larc.nasa.gov)

• Communities of Practice– Linkages to science and technology communities with common interests as GEO

• Usability Testing– Of the GCI via the portals

Still Other Solutions

• Committee on Earth Observations Satellites (CEOS) requirements database

• Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Essential Climate Variables (ECV) development

• Water Strategy Document• Architecture Implementation Pilots (AIP)• User Survey• Other efforts you’ll hear about in this session

Possible Approaches for Grouping – Focus on the Use of the Data

Not to be read across, but rather start anywhere and go anywhere.Highlights the assumption that use does not imply expertise, and viceVersa.

Possible Approaches for Grouping – Broad Job Description Mapped to Broad Role

Highlights the assumption that processing levels increase with degree of removal from the raw observations

Possible Approaches for Grouping – Activity by Activity/Task by Task Survey

We Have Discovered Over Time That….

• GEO must have a clear understanding (or articulation) of its scope and customer – i.e., go ahead and split the hairs– GEO receives resources from Ministers to deliver several ‘products’ and

‘services,’ and those products and services must be ‘useable’ and ‘accessible’

• GEO must have a clear articulation of what a ‘requirement’ is, means, or implies (Is a ‘requirement’ an ECV? Is it a wish list? Is it only what’s been funded? Is it something else besides a ‘loaded’ word? How do we track one? How do we know it’s been met? And so on)

• These things need to be decided so that context is clear for each activity – if not now, the for the next GEO.

Just to Get the Discussion Going….By NO Means a Formal Position!!!

• GEO was established by and for Ministers/governments, to develop GEOSS, which will, in turn, increase national, regional, and global ability to address issues of societal benefit– The governments using GEO have user networks who, in turn, use, modify, or

otherwise process data into information for their user networks, and so on.– These governments also use Participating Organizations to help with their

mission, AND those POs have their own user communities.

• “Requirements” in the context of GEO are identified and agreed Earth observations data, products, or services that can be used to provide solutions to customer problems, and/or are social processes that can enable the those solutions.

For the Remainder of This Session

• Think about these issues and definitions, think about the examples given and how they’ve worked, think about your own user engagement, and be prepared to discuss!