Data communities of practice are working in parallel across different federal agencies and disciplines. Although their
overall goals of data curation and distribution may overlap with each other, the nature of the data, the data policies,
and the data sharing culture may be very different. Where and when should connection points be made between
groups for the greatest mutual benefit? This presentation will use the USGS Community for Data Integration (CDI) as a
discussion point for how connections with external partners could reduce redundancy, build networks, and advance the
field of environmental data management. |
Environmental Data Management (EDM) traditionally considers the stewardship of data to occur between receipt and
access, but data collection and end use considerations affect how those data must be managed. What efforts are
undertaken by EDM stewards to ensure that data are collected and provisioned in ways that optimize their utility based
on the needs of a broad consumer base? Engaging data consumers and collectors is an essential, but oft overlooked
component of true end-to-end (E2E) EDM stewardship. When we ignore these steps, define them too narrowly, underresource
them, or attempt to fulfill them after the fact, EDM stewardship becomes suboptimal and data potential
becomes unnecessarily limited. Optimizing stewardship requires identifying and cultivating ongoing dialog with
stakeholders on both ends of the data chain to ensure the needs of those stakeholders are considered and integrated,
where possible, into data collection and stewardship processes to maximum effect. To be effective, such engagement
must, like all other aspects of stewardship, be proactively included in the process as a clearly defined activity. This
presentation discusses the development, implementation, and benefits of stakeholder engagement as an integral part
of an E2E EDM stewardship process. |