Progress report from the West Coast Governors’ Alliance December “West Coast Regional Data Framework” workshop
Hello West Coast Data Network!
It has been a little over a month since the December “West Coast Regional Data Framework” workshop in Oakland and there is much news to report. Below is a summary of follow up efforts to date, including the successful approval of the Regional Data Network ACT by the West Coast Governors Alliance (WCGA) last week.
[We have developed a listserv that] will serve as our primary communication mechanism and we are working on a Regional Data Network webpage up on the WCGA site for news and updates.
Workshop Summary ‑ Please see the Workshop Summary for a draft overview of the major outcomes from the workshop. The official workshop proceedings are currently being reviewed by an editor for release in late February. We hope that these can be used to communicate workshop recommendations and Framework goals to managers and the broader data community.
Regional Data Network Action Coordination Team (ACT) – One of the first successful actions for the Network was the approval of a proposal to the West Coast Governors Alliance to create an Action Coordination Team to support the information needs of the other WCGA ACTs. This was a recommendation from the Outreach group at the workshop to help establish a formal representative group of the Network. Inclusion under the WCGA will make it easier for the Network to seek grants and take advantage of the WCGA’s fiscal sponsor to leverage other funds for priority action items while capitalizing on existing resources. The existing ACTs also provide a ready group of consumers and managers of scientific and geospatial data that the Regional Data Network ACT could engage as it goes through the process of prioritizing, gathering, managing, and disseminating data sets and information products of regional importance. Finally, the WCGA has already built a relationship with West Coast stakeholders and has established communication mechanisms for issues of regional significance, which can provide the network with a clear avenue for feedback on its efforts. We presented this information to the WCGA Executive committee and they agreed this was a good course of action and gave the go‑ahead to hold member nominations and develop a work plan. Many thanks to the ACT Proposal Writing Committee (Dawn Wright, Matt Armsby, Andy Lanier, Sara Guiltinan, Beth Timmons, Holly Lopez, Alan Allwardt, and Evan Paul)!
ACT Nomination – The next step in the ACT development process is to determine ACT membership according to the WCGA charter which allow a maximum of 15 ACT members and require one representative from each West Coast state, federal and tribal representatives, as well as other participants that may provide valuable input. The ACT will serve as a group of representatives for the broader West Coast Regional Data Network, which currently consists of the workshop participants and could include additional interested parties who have a vested interest in, and capacity to help achieve, the Network goals in the future. The ACT would coordinate the activities of the Outreach, Data, and IT working groups and incorporate input from the broader Regional Data Network, the WCGA Executive Committee, and the other ACTs. Please see the Nomination Announcement for further details. The nomination process is open from Feb. 6th – Feb. 24th. Feel free to share this announcement with colleagues and others who you feel would be interested in serving on the ACT.
Technical Working Groups ‑ At the workshop, two preliminary working groups were organized dedicated to Data and IT tasks. These working groups developed a list of near‑ and longer‑term goals, identified volunteer coordinators to keep the groups moving toward those goals, and determined the best mechanisms for ongoing internal communication. Each working group chose a leader and have begun communicating internally to flesh out initial steps. If you wish to join a working group, please contact Todd Hallenbeck or the leaders of each team; Data (Chris Romsos) or IT (Emilio Mayorga).
NOAA ROP Funding – The WCGA agreed to grant about $100K to support the outcomes of the workshop. The ACT will develop a work plan based on the workshop recommendations and technical working groups’ input. This work plan will serve as our proposal of how to use those funds and also provide the vision for the Regional Data ACT over the next 3‑5 years. That proposal needs to be crafted by the end of March, which is a very tight timeline. We are hoping to convene a meeting of the ACT in March to finalize the work plan.
Webinars – The IT group will be hosting a series of technical webinars to determine the best data display platform for use by the Network. Please contact Emilio Mayorga information on this.
There has been substantial progress since we met in December and thank you to all who have been leading the charge and keeping the momentum up. If you want to know more or have questions please send me an email.
Cheers,
Todd R. Hallenbeck | Sea Grant Fellow
West Coast Governors Alliance
Office of the Governor
635 Capitol Street NE, Suite 150 | Salem, OR 97301‑2540
Office: (503) 373‑0050 ext. 242 | Fax: (503) 378‑6033