Project - Go-Geo! Geodata Portal: Phase 3:portals programme

Type:

Sub-type: None

Purpose: Educational Development

Details: Introduction The aim of the Go-Geo! portal is to provide access to and promote the existence of geo-spatial data and related resources within the academic community. The portal will allow users to find out what data exist; to ascertain their quality and suitability for use; and how to gain access the data. The focus is on the ‘where’ is a resource and less on the ‘what’ is it about, which is the focus of other JISC portals. This third phase of the geo-data portal project will build upon earlier work to make a transition from demonstrator to full service. Aims and Objectives The central aim of this phase is to develop the geo-spatial portal to a point where it is suitable for roll out as a full service and will specifically: *promote the possibilities of a fully functioning service to potential users; *trial the service and measure performance and usability; *promote the benefits of processing material at a geographical level within the HE and FE communities. The key objectives is to continue to develop and enhance the service in preparation for service launch, which will include: *linking in two existing Z-targets which have geo-spatial holdings to form the basis of the geo-data network; *addition of user profiling; *improvements in the spatial searching of directory services, remote databases and resource nodes; *development of a facility to allow the geo-data network to be searchable via the gateway from other portals; *identification of potential new developments and enhancements to the portal. Overall Approach The Geo-data Portal can already assist users in obtaining geo-related resources and supports users in searching and discovering resources. The resources available now are a sample of what might potentially be available from other directory services, catalogues, databases, web and message servers. During this project the following activities will be undertaken: *running of a trial service, supported by an on-going programme of evaluation at 6 institutions; *a study to investigate a cost-effective way of distributing/publishing geo-spatial data held by individuals, research teams and departments; *promote the possibilities of a service through demonstrations at conferences and general awareness raising; *continue to develop relationships with relevant initiatives in geo-spatial searching, specifically the RDN Geography and Environment Hub ) GEsource and the AGI Gigateway (formerly NGDF. Project Consortium The project partners are: EDINA, University of Edinburgh and; UK Data Archive, University of Essex. EDINA is the lead site for the project and will continue to provide the technical input to this project. It was responsible for the design and technical implementation of the demonstrator service. The UK Data Archive (UKDA) is responsible for the content, promotion and evaluation of the portal. A separate but associated project promoting metadata creation is being conducted by the UKDA.

Estimated end date: 2004

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