[CF-metadata] per-variable metadata?

From: Lowry, Roy K. <rkl>
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2011 19:08:03 +0100

Hi John,

We seem to have a difference of perception in the fragility of Web access to the average scientist. Certainly, I was assuming ships had virtually the same level of internet access as I have at home (if not in the lab) based on my experience of the NERC ships. However, if lack of internet access becomes an issue then we need to look at URI resolution to physical XML files sitting with the NetCDF.

Cheers, Roy.

________________________________________
From: John Graybeal [jbgraybeal at mindspring.com]
Sent: 05 August 2011 17:57
To: Lowry, Roy K.
Cc: ngalbraith at whoi.edu; cf-metadata at cgd.ucar.edu
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] per-variable metadata?

On Aug 5, 2011, at 09:27, Lowry, Roy K. wrote:

> Hi Nan,
>
> At the risk of being shot for herecy, I maintain the belief that in the current technological environonment packing everything inside the straightjacket container of a physical file is an anachronism. <snip> So, I would have an attribute in the CF file holding a permanent identifier that is guaranteed to be resolvable from now until eternity into an XML file delivering usage metadata.

I agree with the first statement, because 'everything' is a long list indeed. The world of linked open data agrees too, I expect.

But with respect to *usage* metadata, I wonder. Because the storage of complex data for perpetual access on the web is not a solved problem, and not everyone has access to the entire web, or at least every metadata provider for every file they are working with, all the time. So then you're stuck, until the ship gets back or the DSL line is up or the hosting site finishes its weekly maintenance, or someone goes back and resuscitates some old system that had the metadata years or decades before.

John--
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Received on Fri Aug 05 2011 - 12:08:03 BST