Highlights from CODATA, 2006

Krishan Lal, CODATA President

Dear friends,

As newly elected President of CODATA I would like to draw your attention to some of the highlights in 2006. This was a special year in CODATA's history as it marked our 40^th anniversary.

CODATA 2006

It culminated in the celebration of the 20^th International CODATA Conference that took place in Beijing in October 2006. This was indeed the biggest and most successful conference in the 40 year history of CODATA, with over six hundred participants from all over the world attending. Participants came from academia, industry and government. Our keynote speakers included:

Jane Lubchenco, Past President of the International Council for Science;
XU Guanhua, President of Ministry of Science and Technology, China;
Tony Hey, Vice-President for Technical Computing, Microsoft;
LIU Depei, President, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences;

For more information see http://www.codata.org/06conf/index.html

25^th CODATA General Assembly

The conference was followed by the 25^th CODATA General Assembly. I was elected president at the meeting. I am also very pleased to announce the board members who I will work with and who will be responsible for shaping and implementing the exciting CODATA Strategic Plan for 2006-2012 that was presented to the Delegates in Beijing:

President:                     Krishan Lal (India) (2006-2010)

Vice-Presidents:            Steve Rossouw (South Africa) (2006-2010)
                                    Gordon H. Wood (Canada) (2006-2010)

Secretary General:         Robert Chen (USA) (2004-2008)

Treasurer:                     Jean-Jacques Royer (France) (2004-2008)

Past President:              Shuichi Iwata (Japan) (2006-2008)

Executive Committee 2006-2008

Jean Garnier, IUPAB;
Sara Graves, USA;
GUO Huadong, China;
Fedor Kuznetsov, Russia;
Ray Norris, IAU;
Antoni Nowakowski, Poland;
Michel Sabourin, IUPsyS/Canada;
Mikhail Zgurovsky, Ukraine

More Information can be found on http://www.codata.org/about/executiveboard.html

CODATA Task Groups 2006-2008

The 2006-2008 Task Groups as approved by the 2006 CODATA General Assembly are:

Access to Biological Collection Data
Anthropometric Data and Engineering
Comprehensive Information System on Natural Disaster Mitigation
Data Sources in Asian and Oceanic Countries
Data Sources for Sustainable Development in SADC Countries
Exchangeable Materials Data Representation to Support Scientific Research and Education
Fundamental Constants
Gas Hydrates
Global Species Data Networks
Polar Year Data Policy and Management
Preservation of and Access to S&T Data in Developing Countries

Information on each of these will be available shortly on our website http://www.codata.org

CODATA Prize Winner, 2006

CODATA is delighted to announce that the 4^th CODATA award winner recipient is Dr. John Rumble, Jr, formerly of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. For more information see: http://www.codata.org/archives/2006/06conf/prize.html

CODATA DataScience Journal

The CODATA Data Science Journal is a peer-reviewed electronic journal publishing papers on the management of data and databases in Science and Technology. In January 2006, a new Editor-in-Chief was named and the Journal was relocated from the University of Belfast to the Japan Science and Technology Information Aggregator (J-Stage), an electronic Journal portal. Information on papers published and how to submit papers can be found on http://www.codata.org/dsj/index.html

CODATA takes the lead on Furthering the Application of the Agreed GEOSS data sharing principles

Agreement for a 10-year implementation plan for a Global Earth Observation System of Systems, known as GEOSS, was reached by member countries of the Group on Earth Observations at the Third Observation Summit. CODATA and GEO organized a meeting on the 22^nd of October 2006 in Beijing. See http://www.codata.org/GEOSS/index.html

This meeting focused specifically on Task DA-06-01: Furthering the practical application of the agreed GEOSS data sharing principles. CODATA is now taking the lead on furthering the application of these data sharing principles. This Task has been included in the GEO Draft Workplan for 2007-2009. We look forward to working with GEO on this task.

Global information Commons for Science Initiative, GICSI

Following on from the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in November 2005, at which CODATA launched its Global information Commons for Science Initiative, http://www.itu.int/wsis/tunis/statements/docs/pe-codata/1.doc, CODATA held a series of meetings in 2006 on the initiative-Dublin, Brussels, and Beijing. The Initiative is part of the CODATA Strategic Plan in and we hope to commence implementation of same in 2007.

The foregoing are just a few examples of some of the highlights in 2006. As incoming President I must acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the outgoing President, Shuichi Iwata over the last four years. It is thanks to his work and that of the out-going board that these activities were generated.

2006-2008 promises to be an exciting period for CODATA as we embark on formalizing the Strategic Plan as discussed in Beijing and initiate steps to implement it. As President of CODATA, I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to you for all of your support. Without your support none of these activities would be possible.

Finally, I wish you, your family, friends and colleagues the warmest holiday greetings and the very best for 2007 and beyond.

Kind regards

Dr. Krishan Lal

President CODATA

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CODATA Secretariat: 51 boulevard de Montmorency, 75016 Paris Ph : + 33 1 45 25 04 96 / Fax : + 33 42 88 14 66
E-mail : codata@dial.oleane.com http : www.codata.org