June 12, 2012 —The Assembly of the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP Federation) elected four new member organizations, bringing total membership to more than 140 organizations. (See below for a complete list of new members). Partnership in the ESIP Federation is open to organizations that work at the intersection of Earth science data and associated technologies.

The ESIP Federation is dedicated to transforming research data and information into useful and usable data and information products for decision makers, policy makers and the public. “The ESIP Federation is the community space for Earth science data practitioners looking to expose their technical work and to learn about the work of their peers. ESIP Federation partners work collectively to improve interoperability among data systems, regardless of who created them,” said Karl Benedict, ESIP Federation President. Benedict adds, “The ESIP Federation does this through an open, collegial environment that focuses on the broader community good.”

ESIP Federation membership is strictly voluntary and the continued growth of its membership reflects the recognition that the ESIP Federation is a dynamic and collaborative forum where data providers, researchers and users gather to exchange valuable information. According to Benedict, “The steady growth of ESIP Federation membership and the growing diversity of partners showcases the value that the ESIP Federation community provides to its members. The community-led technical exchanges, professional development workshops and peer-to-peer interactions facilitated by the ESIP Federation allow for community solutions to distributed data systems interoperability to emerge.”

The new member organizations include (member type in parenthesis):

UNC-CH / Data Intensive Cyber Environments Center / DataNet Federation Consortium (DICE) (Type III)
University of South Florida College of Marine Science (USFCMS) (Type II)
NASA Applied Sciences Program - Health and Air Quality Applications, NASA HQ (Type II)
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill / RENCI (Renaissance Computing Institute) / iRODS Development and Support (RENCI) (Type II)

Initiated by NASA in 1997, the ESIP Federation is a broad-based, distributed community of science data and information technology practitioners spanning government (NASA, NOAA, EPA, USGS, NSF), academia and the private sectors (both commercial and nonprofit). The Foundation for Earth Science provides administrative and staff support to the ESIP Federation.



Contact:

Karl Benedict
President, ESIP Federation

Carol Meyer
Executive Director
Foundation for Earth Science
Tel.: 919.870.7140