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NEW PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES 



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There is a very broad realm of research opportunities defined by the diversity of issues 

 embedded in the subjects of quality of life, economic development, education/ 

 communication and national security. Nonetheless, it is quite noteworthy that for the 

 purposes of defining partnerships, several consistent themes emerged from the 

 deliberations of these distinct working groups. The pervasive nature of these themes 

 lends strong credibility to the partnership approach; there is an implication that a 

 partnership developed to address a problem in one area will provide collateral benefits 

 to other applications. 



What follows is a description of the opportunities for development of specific 

 partnerships in oceanography. The intent is to identify where the key target areas exist 

 and what tiie specific focus of partnerships should be to address the most urgent 

 community needs. 



Data 



DECLASSMCATION - 



The currency of 

 oceanographic progress is 

 data. The ocean 

 environment is largely 

 undersampled or 

 unsampled. There exist 

 data which might serve 

 multiple needs. Many of 

 these data, however, are 

 kept under lock and key, 

 and their access is 

 restricted for purposes of 

 national security. A recent 

 exercise, entitled MEDEA 

 has demor\strated the 

 value of many of the 

 classified oceanographic 

 data, for application to a 

 wide range of problems 

 including global climate 

 change, earthquake 

 studies, and biological 

 productivity of the oceans, 

 with no concomitant 

 threat of reduced security. 



Subject: Data Accessibility 



Background: The Navy holds in iis 

 operational database vast quantities 

 of information collected at great 

 expense over decades. One will not 

 be able to collect such a data set 

 again. Some of the data are 

 unclassified and prospects for more 

 of it to be declassified are promising. 

 The Navy also regularly models its 

 data for analysis and prediction. 

 These too are such sources of 

 information. Finally, the Navy has 

 invested in an Integrated Data Base 

 Management System (IDBMS) which 

 is an information discovery and 

 management tool that provides for 



feoreference and inter-related data, 

 here is probably no better 

 collection of global ocean data more 

 readily usable or electronically 

 reachable. 



Opportunitv: Remote access to 

 these valuable unclassified data sets 

 using slate-of-the-networking-art on- 

 line connectivity facilitated by 

 IDBMS data management systems. 

 This opportunity may be extended to 

 all civilian users when unclassified 

 data are involved, but policy 

 questions will need resolution first. 



Hurdles: 



1. Cost: While not significant, there 

 are some costs in the $2-4 M 

 (estimated) range to procure 

 networking hardware, to install 

 precautions against inadvertent 

 release of classified data or model 

 information, and to manage the 

 networking system. 



2. Policy: For decades, all 

 unclassified oceanographic data 

 went to national data centers for 

 further archiving and distribution. 

 Building on the modern trend of 

 distributed archives and database 

 management may mean new or 

 additional routes to important 

 oceanic data. Moving from central 

 national archives to direct access of 

 Navy data by authorized users need 

 not be threatening to existing 

 centers. While this initiative should 

 neither be a hurdle or a threat, it 

 will need to be discussed. Data 

 should continue to be made 

 available to the national archival 

 centers, perhaps using the same on- 

 line data transfer techniques. 



Rationale for Partnership: On-line 

 connectivity between the Navy's 

 oceanographic data/model sources 

 and available users can accelerate 

 and expand civilian and commercial 

 use of unclassified high quality data. 

 Feedback to the Navy will result as 

 surely as civilian ana commercial 

 successes will. Further, one would 

 expect a return of civilian data and 

 commercial products to the Navy for 

 inclusion in Navy managed 

 database/models. Also, such 

 capabilities would undoubtedly 

 make US companies more 

 competitive in foreign markets. 



Expected Product: An on-line 

 connectivity linking Naval 

 oceanographic anacivilian 

 oceanographic government, industry, 

 and academic organizations for the 

 purpose of quality data transfer. 



