OpenCDMS aims to become a free Reference Open Source Climate Data Management System for atmospheric, hydrological, marine, phenological, air composition and other environmental data with a time-series component.
Offer, to any National Meteorological and Hydrological Service (NMHS) and any other climate related entity, software solutions that are sustainable, cost-effective, technologically efficient and compliant with the World Meteorological Organization and international standards, for:
- collecting data;
- maintaining forever the climate history;
- managing and analyzing climate data;
- enabling production and delivery of climate products and services.
Become a constructive actor in the world of open source by bringing together a diverse and talented community to globally promote consistent, qualified, valued, authoritative and accessible climate data, products and services.
The OpenCDMS Project will develop free open-source systems for managing observational and derived data concerning water, weather, hydrology, climate and environment in general, and the associated metadata, using best-practice methods and technology.
One of the products will be a package intended for use as an operational CDMS by NMHSs of WMO Members and any other climate related entity who would like to benefit from all or part of the package.
For NMHSs and others who plan to use their own systems, and for the developers of 3rd party systems, the OpenCDMS Project will provide a reference function. This will include the ability for developers of other systems to use modules from the OpenCDMS Project within the free open-source licensing structure. Developers and users of other systems will also be able to compare the processes they implement against the peer-reviewed reference systems implemented in the OpenCDMS Project. The OpenCDMS project will maintain test datasets and associated results which can be used to test other systems for compliance with appropriate standards
The OpenCDMS Project will implement in processes and systems the regulations and guidance in relevant WMO documents, including the Guide to Climatological Practices (WMO-No. 100), the Climate Data Management System Specifications (WMO-No. 1131) and the Manual of the High Quality Data Management Framework for Climate (WMO-No. 1238). The OpenCDMS Project will maintain close coordination with relevant programs, projects and Expert Teams (especially peer-review of methods and processes), on WMO Information Service (WIS), WMO Integrated Global Observing System (WIGOS), the WMO Hydrological Observing System, etc. It will liaise with external organizations including the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), the European Copernicus programme and its Climate Change Service and others.
The OpenCDMS Project will provide repository facilities for publication and archiving of any offered CDMS software and system, whether obsolete or current, with the aim of enabling inspection of those systems so the techniques are not lost, and thus enabling re-evaluation of products used in past studies.
The OpenCDMS Project will include project activities for migration of specified and agreed current operational open-source CDMS towards a smooth transition to full implementation of the future OpenCDMS through an incremental process of update releases and training.
In addition to the pledge and standards in the Code of Conduct of the OpenWIS Association, contributors to the OpenCDMS project shall reflect and adhere to the following values:
- Forward-looking and ambitious in developing software and systems. Particular emphasis is on encouraging best-practice and sustainability.
- Inclusive and encouraging. Participants will encourage and support contributions from people who are new to open-source development and/or climate data, especially those based in developing and least developed countries. Contributions from users and developers of current systems will be welcomed, and input sought from those with practical and theoretical knowledge.
- Pragmatic, the project will prioritise solving issues faced by the software users in their best interests.
- Evolutionary in building on existing systems, tools and techniques to support managed migration towards implementation of the high-quality processes embodied in OpenCDMS without loss of existing data and metadata and building on the knowledge and skills in the existing user community.
As required by OpenWIS Association AISBL Internal Rules, the OpenCDMS Project will be managed by a Project Management Committee (PMC). This committee will be the interface between the Association and the Project, and will determine the overall strategic direction of the project. It will also maintain strong coordination with the WMO Secretariat and the WMO expert network.
The initial membership of the PMC is proposed as follows:
- WMO Secretariat;
- OpenWIS Association AISBL representative;
- Representative(s) of WMO Technical Commissions and other bodies representing climate and hydrology domains;
- Representative(s) of projects for current associated CDMSs (MCH, Climsoft, CliDE,etc);
- Representative(s) of bodies providing developers and other support, including WMO Members, HMEI, non-profit organisations, universities and others.
The Chair of the PMC is to be proposed by the Members of the Project Management Committee and endorsed by the OpenWIS Association AISBL Steering Committee.
- Coordinate the work of the project;
- When appropriate, make formal decisions, including reviewing membership of the PMC;
- Manage financial support to the project;
- Ensure that the project is managed in accordance with OpenWIS practices;
- Report, at least on an annual basis, to the OpenWIS Steering Committee;
- Provide information to the appropriate WMO Expert Team, and through that to the wider WMO community.
The PMC may organize teams to manage Project activities or groups of activities, as appropriate. The Chair of each team will usually be a member of the PMC and report to the PMC on the activities for which the team is responsible.
- Governance, infrastructure and policies defined;
- Community of open-source contributors initiated and sustainable (on-going process);
- Roadmap for OpenCDMS development, implementation and interfaces for environmental observation time-series data;
- Precursor CDMSs improved and rationalized towards OpenCDMS;
- OpenCDMS data model designed, tested and implemented;
- User interfaces for data and metadata management designed, tested and implemented;
- Specific end-user applications tested and implemented.
Timetabling of Project activities and deliverables will be published in the Github Project documentation, with final decisions under control of the PMC.
This Project Charter will be reviewed three years after it comes into effect, and at intervals thereafter.
The WMO community is expected to be a major sponsor of the OpenCDMS Project. The sustainability of the interest of WMO for a Reference open-source CDMS is clearly indicated in its Resolutions.
OpenCDMS Project will encourage contributions in kind from Members of WMO and of the Association of Hydro-Meteorological Equipment Industry (HMEI) as well as non-profit organizations, universities, and other interested bodies and individuals.
Funded contributions may be received through WMO mechanisms, from Members of WMO and other organisations which wish to obtain implementation of OpenCDMS activities, especially implementation of improved CDMS and observation processing.
Finance for funded contributions may be managed directly between funding source and supplier, or may be indirect. Contributors receiving funding should inform the Project Management Committee to enable reporting of totals received.
No funding is expected from the OpenWIS Association AISBL. If there are advantages and the Board of the Association agrees, then the Association may receive and manage funds for the Project.
All Contributors to the OpenCDMS Project or any of its activities must submit a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) that has been signed by each Contributor, and filed through the process for CLAs managed by the OpenWIS Association AISBL.
The rules and expectations for participating in the OpenCDMS Project are defined in the Technical Rules and Code of Conduct of the OpenWIS Association AISBL.
As an open source project, OpenCDMS will be delivered by a range of contributors. Some of those individuals will be volunteers contributing in their personal time, and others will be assigned by their employers to contribute to the project, others may be contractors. Users in the NMHSs will be encouraged to participate as Contributors, especially from their experience, and in the design, testing and usage discussions.
Development, documentation and other materials will be managed through the GitHub project https://github.com/opencdms as a free open-source project using best-practice and following the rules of the OpenWIS Association.