1. ORGANIZATION OF THE MEETING

1.1 Opening remarks
1.2 Adoption of the agenda
1.3 Working arrangements

2. REVIEW WMO CORE METADATA PROFILE DEVELOPED AT THE FIRST MEETING

3. DEFINE EXTENSIONS NEEDED FOR ISO CODE LISTS

4. FINALISE XML SCHEMA, REPRESENTATION AND EXAMPLES FOR THE WMO CORE METADATA PROFILE

5. FINALISE LIST OF KEYWORDS TO DESCRIBE WMO DATASETS

6. DEVELOP RECOMMENDATIONS ON COMPREHENSIVE WMO METADATA STANDARDS

7. DISCUSS REQUIRED MODIFICATIONS TO THE GUIDE ON WWW DATA MANAGEMENT

8. FUTURE WORK PROGRAMME

9. CLOSURE OF THE MEETING

 

The second meeting of the CBS Expert Team on Integrated Data Management will open at 0900 on Monday 13 May 2002 at the Met Office Training College in Shinfield, UK. Travel information will be available via the WMO Web server at http://www.wmo.ch/web/www/WDM/ET-IDM-2/documents.html   and will be mailed only on request.

CBS, at its twelfth session in November 2000, established the ET on Integrated Data Management. At its first meeting in November 2001 the team worked to develop a metadata framework, which at the highest level is applicable to all WMO tasks, but which can be extended to specific areas and to new ventures in an acceptable and standardized form. The team, having worked through a series of technical issues via correspondence, will meet for a second time to develop a final proposal for consideration by CBS at its extraordinary session in December 2002.

The meeting is expected to cover complex technical and managerial issues. It is essential that working papers on these issues be prepared in advance of the session so they can be reviewed by all team members prior to the session. Therefore, experts are invited to prepare working papers on issues within their areas of expertise and to send these documents to the WMO Secretariat via mail, fax or electronic mail in ASCII, HTML or MS Word formats. Documents can be sent to the Secretariat by fax to +41-22-730-8021 or by electronic mail to mcguirk_d@gateway.wmo.ch.

At its first meeting, the team reviewed a number of relevant metadata standards. It examined the Dublin Core and draft ISO standard Geographic Metadata (19115) most closely and determined that the elements needed to meet WMO requirements could be considered to conform to Dublin Core and that the draft ISO standard could be applied to WMO requirements.

The ISO 19115 specifies a process where a community can adopt parts of the standard that it feels are relevant (including the "Core Elements") and also extend the elements, keywords and code table instances to suit that community. The team agreed that there should be a Community Core Profile which could be adopted by all of WMO, with the potential for further extensions under ISO 19115 Annex C where necessary. With this process in mind the team developed a "WMO Community Core Metadata" profile, which is described in the report of the meeting.

The team will review the WMO Core Metadata profile and will suggest any required modifications.

At its first meeting the team noted that all of the WMO core items could be accommodated within the draft ISO standard but that some WMO extensions to the ISO code lists might be required. It will develop any extensions needed for ISO code lists (e.g. list of standard parameter codes).

XML is rapidly becoming a standard for exchanging information between applications, as well as for providing information on which the formatting of data for display in a browser may be defined. Industry standards are being defined to allow the exchange of information between applications using the XML standard, with the expectation that many business transactions will use XML as their standard means of data exchange.

There are many possible ways of representing WMO metadata in XML. To ensure interoperability the experts developed, via correspondence, a framework for mapping the proposed metadata standard into XML. The team will finalise this framework and agree on an XML schema for the WMO Core Metadata.

To facilitate searches for datasets that will meet a given requirement, the proposed WMO Community Core Metadata Profile provides for keywords that describe the dataset. A standard list of keywords will help to achieve the maximum benefit from this provision and will also contribute to development of multi-lingual capabilities. A draft list of WMO keywords has been developed via correspondence and the team will review this list and develop a recommendation for a version to be used in initial implementations of the WMO Core Metadata.

The various Programmes of WMO have a wide range of requirements for documentation of their datasets. Thus, it would be difficult to develop a standard for comprehensive metadata that would meet the needs of all Programmes. Development of a comprehensive WMO metadata standard would be a difficult, lengthy and expensive undertaking. One possible approach would be for each WMO Programme to conduct analysis of its own metadata requirements and then have an inter-programme team develop a comparative analysis. The team will be invited to develop recommendations on further steps to be taken in this regard.

CBS requested that the team advise on reorganization of the Guide on WWW Data Management and coordinate the development of the WMO Guide on Data Management, including preparation of the sections relating to the WMO metadata standards. The team will be invited to develop recommendations on this topic.

The team will be invited to advise the chair on its future work programme.

The meeting is expect to conclude its business by 1200 on Thursday 16 May 2002.