This Appendix is intended to provide background for task 2.1.
Given the proposed scope of GTOS activities and the breadth of the targeted user community, the requirements will cover the whole range of what is meant by the terms "data" and "information", from basic observations in primary datasets through processed data in derived datasets to model outputs and indicators. Thus datasets themselves and the results of processing and analysis may all be considered GTOS products.
In the case of derived datasets which will be produced from activities facilitated by GTOS, the situation seems clear. Any such dataset will be a GTOS product. An example is the estimates of Net Primary Productivity from the GT-Net demonstration project. A basic tenet of any GTOS Network should be that any such outputs are designated as GTOS products but ownership will remain with the Network members and will be acknowledged.
The same argument may be applied to new primary datasets which will be compiled through GTOS Network activities (such as those to be generated in the GT-Net demonstration project). These too will be GTOS products. This should work in the same way as in the preceding case i.e. "ownership" will remain with the dataset generators and will be acknowledged.
There is also the question of existing datasets, both primary and derived, which will be used to develop GTOS products where they are identified as required to meet a priority need. Datasets currently identified by TOPC are examples of this. A formal approach should be made to the dataset owners asking that the dataset be made accessible to GTOS. Such datasets may not be GTOS products in the strict sense of "produced by GTOS" but if they are used by GTOS they are GTOS datasets in the sense that they have received some form of approval. The suggestion has been made that, in acknowledging ownership of any such dataset, it should be flagged as "a contribution to GTOS".
Thus for all of the above, mechanisms are needed to ensure that, where appropriate, a GTOS designation is attached to any product (including datasets) without usurping ownership in any way. Any such dataset would need to be managed according to GTOS policies, including having the required metadata at the directory level.
