The ICSU World Data System: First Triennial Term

The International Council of Science (ICSU) established the ICSU World Data System (WDS) at its General Assembly, in Maputo, Mozambique, on October 28, 2008. At the next ICSU General Assembly in Rome, Italy, in September, 2011, we reported the following achievements. Over 120 data organizations worldwide have expressed an interest in joining the WDS. So far, over one third of these organizations have met the rigorous criteria set by the WDS Scientific Committee (WDS-SC), and have been offered membership. These include: -- Regular members of WDS: Nodes that deal directly with data curation and data analysis services. Former WDC, FAGS, National data centers, University data centers, etc. fall in this category. -- Network members: represent groups of regular members. Serve as coordinating agents across regular nodes that have common characteristics and mostly common disciplines. -- Partner members: members who do not deal directly with the practical details of data collection, curation, and distribution, but who contribute funding or other support to regular nodes. -- Associate members: members who are interested in the endeavor, participate in the discussion, but do not contribute direct funding or other material support, such as ICSU national members, Academies, and certain commercial organizations. This diversity reflects the concept of the WDS as a "System of Data Systems." A WDS International Program Office (IPO) has been established, and is hosted by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology of Japan (NICT), with funding for the next 5 years. The IPO and the ICSU-WDS SC have convened the first WDS scientific symposium in Kyoto, Japan, Sept. 3-6, 2011. This symposium featured over 100 contributions from participants worldwide. We will report on the status of the WDS, and outline plans for the next triennial term of the WDS-SC.