Thanks to support from member states the IODE programme is able to organize a wide range of training courses on a regular basis. These courses are complemented and supported by the OceanTeacher training system.

In order to assess training needs and to enable cost-effective planning of courses in 2009 the IOC Project Office for IODE has created a web-based survey through which oceanographic data managers can identify needs. The survey is open between 29 October and 28 November 2008.

A similar survey will be created for marine information management to be launched around 15 November 2008.

The first version of the provisional agenda of the 20th Session of the IODE Committee (Tianjin, China, 4-8 May 2009) is now available from the IODE web site HERE .

Robert Gelfeld from the U.S. National Oceanographic Data Center/World Data Center for Oceanography, Silver Spring presented the plenery speech at the 5th National Scientific Conference INFOBAZY 2008: Systems, Applications, and Services in Sopot, Poland from 15-18 October organized by the Institute of Oceanologii of Polish Academy of Science (PAN). The objective of the Conference was to implement the foundations of the “Program Development in Scientific Information Infrastructure for the years 2007-2013” in the area of scientific databases and information services.

His speech noted that a key to utilizing national and international systems, applications, and services for the information community is the ability to provide general access to scientific data and information using current scientific innovations, research, and collaboration between science and society. NODC, the World Data Center system and member states from the IOC international Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange Program provide data and information products and services to scientists, engineers, resource managers, policy makers, and other users around the world to document and describe the ocean’s natural variability.

Topics of interest presented during the conference included OBIS – Ocean Biodiversity Information System, Data standards and formats, Meta-data systems and ontologies, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Risk Management in marine and coastal areas, and Need for Polish National Oceanographic Data Center.

(received from Robert Gelfeld, 21/10/08)

The electronic document repository for ODINECET has been established. The repository is hosted by the Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas (IBSS) in Ukraine.

CEEMaR (Central and Eastern European Marine Repository) is a thematic digital repository covering the marine, brackish and freshwater environments and providing access to papers produced by staff of the ECET countries Institutes.

The repository can be accessed through http://www.ceemar.org

Currently (October 2008) nine research institutes from three countries of Central and Eastern Europe are involved in this project: two institutes from Poland, two from Russia and five Institutes from the Ukraine among them. 

More on ODINECET and CEEMar HERE