Initial Draft Language for discussion:
Proposal for an NDS Inter-operability Working Group
Charter:
To contribute to the realization of the NDS Vision and take a first-step in making a broad range of published data accessible across the ecosystem of tools and services necessary to realize that vision, the participants in the NDS Interoperability Working Group propose the following:
The establishment of a standard mechanism(s) for any tool to access the full set of data and metadata comprising a data publication, regardless of source, and to work individually and collectively across the NDS Consortium to implement those interfaces within existing tools. Further, we propose to develop suite of test data and tools to assess conformance to the agreed standards. These mechanisms are an important initial step in enabling data to flow seamless across tools and services in a National Data Service ecosystem. Our group anticipates that the proposed work will enable a broad range of further efforts, from assessments of the variations in data types, formats, size, purpose, metadata vocabularies across disciplines and tools, to efforts that would define defining minimal metadata standards that would enable interoperability at the level required for functionality such as federated search or data fusion.
Products:
- Documented mechanism(s) for data/metadata access that will include an internet-accessible programming interface(s) and, potentially, a serialized export format and/or container/library-level mechanisms
- Two or more interoperable tools/services that demonstrate the ability to read data from multiple compliant sources
- A suite of test data publications that can be used by cyberinfrastructure developers to test their implementations
- A tool(s)/service(s) that assess the compliance of results returned through the defined mechanisms
- A written report documenting the decision process and final result, and including an initial assessment of potential next steps
Plan:
The group will be open and will solicit participation from the NDS community at large.
In the first month, the group will collect documentation of existing APIs and serialized formats in use today. The group will also document the range of options that could be pursued in defining a common mechanism. As part of this effort, the group will look at available standards, interoperability mechanisms that have been proposed through RDA (e.g. https://rd-alliance.org/group/research-data-repository-interoperability-wg/case-statement/research-data-repository), Earth Cube, or other forums.
The group will plan a series of online discussions to evaluate the options and work to achieve a consensus recommended data interoperability mechanisms. As necessary, group leadership will focus the effort around a minimal set of options based on a consensus across projects that are willing to implement them and an assessment of whether initial implementations can be developed within 6 months.
The project will leverage common software engineering tools (e.g. GitHub) and the cloud resources available through NDS Labs as applicable (e.g. to store test data and share prototype code and testing tools). The group does not anticipate needing staff time from NDS beyond basic support in using the NDS Labs cloud capabilities. (NDS Labs staff would be welcome to participate in the group, contributing time and effort on the same volunteer basis as other participants.)