Two national commissions, the
Pew Oceans Commission and the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, identified
many concerns regarding our oceans but also left unresolved questions
about implementation and action. Directors of Renewable Natural Resources
Foundation decided this consortium of professional, scientific, and educational
organizations needed to enthusiastically support the extraordinary work
of both commissions.
RNRF's "Congress on Building Capacity for Coastal Solutions"
brought together a select group of professionals from its member organizations
and leaders from government, industry, academia, and nongovernmental
organizations. Delegates met December 5-6, 2004 in Washington, D.C.
The specific goals of the congress were to consider findings
and recommendations of the commissions, and to identify high priority
activities for early action. A copy of the resulting report Building Capacity for
Coastal Solutions is available here.
One such recommendation was the need to develop standards to
allow for easy integration and sharing of data from a variety of sources.
Such efforts already are underway. However, delegates made the following
recommendation: "To avoid duplication of existing efforts, a dynamic
database of key activities underway in data standards, inventories, classifications,
and frameworks should be implemented."
The form below is the first step in development of the type of
database recommended by congress delegates. Please submit information
about any efforts you currently are undertaking (please also provide
recommendations of other projects you are aware of). Please feel free
to submit multiple projects. The resulting Database of Key Activities
in Data Standards will be available at http://www.rnrf.org/2004cong/stdactivities.html.
A copy of the initial contact letter for sharing with colleagues
is available
here.