DATA SHARING IN THE SERVICE OF SCIENCE AND SOCIETY: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE GEOSS DATA SHARING PRINCIPLES

GEOSS 10-year Implementation Plan (2005) stated that "The societal benefits of Earth observations cannot be achieved without data sharing" and adopted the GEOSS data sharing principles. To reinforce the principle of data sharing within the GEOSS, the 2007 Cape Town Ministerial Summit recognised that "The success of GEOSS will depend on a commitment by all GEO partners to work together to ensure timely, global and open access to data and products", and "We support the establishment of a process with the objective to reach a consensus on the implementation of the Data Sharing Principles for GEOSS to be presented to the next GEO Ministerial Summit." The 2008 GEO-V Plenary in Bucharest then established the Data Sharing Task Force (DSTF). The DSTF submitted an updated draft of Implementation Guidelines for the GEOSS Data Sharing Principles to GEO-VI Plenary 2009 in Washington DC and prepared a draft Action Plan to implement the Data Sharing Principles and to enable the development of working procedures for data sharing within GEOSS. The DSTF will submit the Implementation Guidelines and the Action Plan for adoption by 2010 GEO Beijing Ministerial Summit.