Kerstin A. Lehnert (1)! Klump, Jens (2)! Arko, Robert A. (1)! Bristol, Sky (3)! Buczkowski, Brian (4)! Chan, Celine (1)! Chan, Samantha (1)! Conze, Ronald (5)! Cox, Simon J. (6)! Habermann, Ted (7)! Hangsterfer, Alexandra (8)! Hsu, Leslie (1)! Milan, Anna (7)! Miller, Stephen P. (8)! Noren, Anders J. (9)! Richard, Stephen M. (10)! Valentine, David W. (11)! Whitenack, Tom (11)! Wyborn, Lesley A. (12)! Zaslavsky, Ilya (11)!
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Workshop “Advancing the Implementation of the
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IGSN as an International Standard for Sample Identification”, SDSC, February 2011!
(1) Lamont Doherty Earth Observ, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, United States.! (2) Centre for GeoInformation Technology, GFZ Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany. ! (3) Central Region Geospatial Information Office, Denver Federal Center, USGS, Denver, CO, United States.! (4) USGS, WHOI, Woods Hole, MA, United States. ! (5) ICDP Operational Support Group, GFZ Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.! (6) Earth Science & Resource Engineering, CSIRO, Bentley, WA, Australia.! (7) National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA, Boulder, CO, United States.! (8) Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States. ! (9) National Lacustrine Core Repository, University of Minnesota , Minneapolis, MN, United States. ! (10) Arizona Geological Survey, Tucson, AZ, United States. ! (11) San Diego Supercomputing Center, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States. ! (12) Geoscience Australia, Canberra, ACT, Australia. !
IN13B-1324!
Architecture and Governance of Registration and Identification Services for Physical Samples in the Digital Universe!
Get the PDF file of the poster here:
Advancing the Implementation of the IGSN as an International Standard for Sample Identification IGSN: !ODP012XBN! Sample Name: !25-248*-9R-1! Other Name(s): !! Sample Type: !Core Section! Parent IGSN: !ODP004943!
Background Unique Identification of Physical Samples Unique identifiers play a fundamental role in the global sharing of information, resources, and objects. In the growing network of Geoscience digital data and knowledge systems that allows sharing and integration of data across disciplines and borders, it becomes essential, even unavoidable, to implement unique identifiers for Geoscience samples in order to link disparate data hosted in different systems. Until now, ambiguous naming of samples has limited the ability to share, link, and integrate sample-‐based data. It has also been impossible to track the analytical history of a sample and its relation to subsamples and pertinent data.
The International Geo Sample Number IGSN The International Geo Sample Number, or IGSN, is a unique identifier for samples and specimens collected from our natural environment. The IGSN is a string of alphanumeric characters, consisting of a Name Space Identifier and a Namespace Specific String. For example, the IGSN ‘ODP012XBNʼ has the name space ‘ODP’ (user: Ocean Drilling program) and the namespace specific string ‘012XBN’. In the current syntax of the IGSN, the namespace identifier has a length of 3 digits and the namespace specific string is 6 digits long. This syntax will change in the new architecture toward a more flexible approach that will allow Registration Agents to create subdomains for their namespace (e.g. for field campaigns) or integrate existing naming protocols into the namespace specific string.
SESAR: System for Earth Sample Registration The IGSN was developed by the System for Earth Sample Registration (www.geosamples.org). SESAR has worked with a broad community of Geoscience researchers, Geoinformatics specialists, and sample curators to establish metadata requirements, registration procedures, and best practices for the use of the IGSN. Currently, the System for Earth Sample Registration is the sole provider of registry services for the IGSN (see poster IN13B-‐1332): It operates the namespace registration and validation, it validates the identifier registration, maintains the metadata clearinghouse, validates metadata content. SESAR provides online tools and services for users to register samples, submit and manage their sample metadata, and search the metadata catalog. This centralized approach was beneficial in the initial development phase for easier and faster implementation of a prototype, but is not scalable to a global and broad implementation.
The IGSN has become recognized as a powerful solution for sample identification and registration, and is now supported by a growing international user community that includes core and sample repositories, geoscience data systems, museums, individual investigators and collectors as well as major sampling campaigns such as the International Continental Drilling Program ICDP, the International Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), the Critical Zone Observatories (CZO), and the US Extended Continental Shelf program. In order to advance broad disciplinary and international implementation of the IGSN, a group of international leaders in Geoscience informatics, representing various Geoscience disciplines, national agencies, major Geoscience projects, and international standard organizations (OGC, ISO), met at the workshop “Advancing the Implementation of the IGSN as an International Standard for Sample Identification” in February 2011 at the San Diego Super-‐ computing Center and developed a consensus strategy for the long-‐term operations of the registry with approaches for sustainable operation, organizational structure, governance, and funding. The group endorsed an internationally unified approach for registration and discovery of physical specimens in the Geoscience community, and refined the existing SESAR architecture to become a modular and scalable approach.
The New IGSN Architecture Workshop participants (see list of authors) refined the existing SESAR architecture to become a modular and scalable approach that provides for greater flexibility and independence of participating entities and domains to respond to requirements of their specific user communities or organizations. This architecture follows the model of the DataCite consortium In the new architecture, the IGSN Registry will be separated from domain-‐specific metadata clearinghouses (e.g. SESAR for Earth Science samples). ‘Allocating Agents’ are introduced that allocate IGSNs on behalf of the IGSN registration agency. Allocating Agents provide registration services to specific disciplinary or organizational communities, including tools for metadata submission and metadata management (Sample Metadata Toolkits), and metadata archiving. Registration agents can develop extended IGSN metadata profiles to match requirements of specific disciplinary communities or organizations. The new IGSN architecture will be implemented in 2012. with funding provided by the US Registration Agency IGSN Metadata Clearinghouse
Responsibilities:
The inaugural assembly of the IGSN e.V. will take place December 7, 2011, here in San Francisco. The founding members will formally sign the organizations’s statutes and elect the Executive Board.
The Founding Members of the IGSN e.V. are • • • • • • • • •
Arizona State Geological Survey, USA Boise State University, USA City College of New York, USA GEOMAR / University of Kiel, Germany Geoscience Australia, Australia GFZ Potsdam, Germany Integrated Earth Data Applications / Columbia Uni., USA Scripps Institution of Oceanography / UC San Diego, USA US Geological Survey, USA
The statutory objectives of the IGSN e.V. include:
-‐ support researchers by providing methods to locate, identify, and cite physical samples with confidence -‐ operate an IGSN registration service with a distributed infrastructure for use by and benefit to its members -‐ foster international cooperation to ensure the availability of physical samples -‐ define, adopt, and promote standard methods to locate, identify, and cite physical samples with confidence -‐ promote and develop knowledge and skills regarding the availability of physical samples and policies for their handling.
Figure 2: Constituent bodies of the Association, the Executive Board and the General Assembly. The Manager is ex officio member of the Executive Board without voting rights and acts as a secretary to the Executive Board and head of the IGSN office.
Participating in the IGSN Membership in the IGSN e.V. is open to all not-‐for-‐profit organizations who wish to allocate IGSN names and use the Registration Agency of IGSN in their capacity as Allocating Agents. Membership is open to organizations only, not to individuals. To become a member in the IGSN Implementation Organization, your home institution needs to apply for membership in the association. Applications for membership in the IGSN Implementation Organization must be sent in writing to the IGSN e.V. management office. The location of the IGSN e.V. Office will be determined by the inaugural General Assembly and announced on the IGSN e.V. web site at www.igsn.org.
As an Institution
The international implementation organization will be incorporated under German law as a not-‐for-‐profit society (“gemeinnütziger eingetragener Verein”), called the IGSN e.V., with a registered office at the GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) Potsdam.
• Contact the Allocating Agent of your community (currently SESAR for Geoscience samples) • Set up an account at the Allocating Agent and register your samples.
The foundation of the new IGSN architecture is a formal governance structure. Workshop participants recommended that this governance structure should consist of (a) an international non-‐profit implementation organization, and (b) a Science Advisory Board that supports and guides policies, technology, and best practices of the SESAR Sample Metadata Clearinghouse and ‘local’ Allocating Agents.
As an Individual who collects & owns samples
Allocating Agents
-‐-‐ The IGSN Implementation Organization
Registration Agency • • • • •
Defines IGSN scope Registers top-‐level registrars Defines IGSN syntax Maintains IGSN handle system Validate identifier registration
Metadata Clearinghouse
Allocating Agents
• Register name spaces, aggregate metadata for namespaces • Validate metadata content for specimen registration • Maintain clearinghouse portal for accessing specimen metadata in their registered namespaces
• Establish detailed specimen description schema • Validate metadata content for specimens • Handle interaction with specimen collectors and curators to register specimens
• Contact the IGSN e.V. office after December 9, 2011 (visit the www.igsn.org for contact info) • Get your own namespace for sample registration. • Establish procedures and policies for sample registration.
If you are interested in becoming a member of the IGSN e.V., please contact us at
[email protected]. A web site is under development at www.igsn.org.
