Abstract
The EarthCube Technology & Architecture Committee formed a Resource
Registry Working Group (WG) to develop a framework for a registry of
EarthCube (EC) resources, enabling users to discover scientific and
technical resources (software, tools, vocabularies, etc.) that are
relevant to their research. The registry will promote EC investments,
reduce time to science, help enable interdisciplinary research, more
clearly define what is EC, and provide a vehicle for tool and software
producers to notify the community about new products, increase
visibility, and gain recognition. A primary requirement is to enable
systematic description of EarthCube computational resources in terms of
their functionality and interfaces for utilization, to enable users to
identify components that can work together in integrated workflows. This
requires understanding the specifics of how a software component
communicates—both the messaging protocol, and the syntax and semantics
of information formats getting data into and out of a component. This
registry would work in conjunction with schema.org dataset descriptions
being developed by the community to streamline linkage of data and
software components for research workflows. The WG created definitions
for a set of resources to include in a first iteration of the registry,
and a set of properties that should be specified for all resources, as
well as properties specific to particular resource types. The suggested
resource types are: Software, Interface/API, Interchange format,
Dataset, Repository, Service, Platform, Vocabulary/ontology/Information
model, Specification, Catalog/registry, and Use Case. Dataset and Use
Case resources registration is out of scope for the WG project, to be
handled separately. Elaboration of this registry is in the workplan for
EarthCube, with the goal maximum reuse of existing vocabularies and
technology and compatibility with related registry activities.