Strategic Plan

Earthzine Strategic Plan 2008 – 2011

Mission

To serve as an IEEE contribution to the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) by providing up-to-date information on the science, technology and participants of Earth observation and information utilization.

Objectives

To facilitate connections between Earth observing professional and the general public.

To foster community among the diverse group of Earth observers and Earth information users while providing a pathway that leads to a more informed public.

To provide a means to understand the impact of Earth observation on societal issues.

To enable cross-discipline and cross-regional sharing of knowledge and ideas.

First Year Goal

Establish Earthzine as an on-line magazine dedicated to Earth observations and those who observe or are impacted by Earth’s dynamic systems.

Five Year Goals

To publish articles covering each of the nine societal benefit areas.

To provide coverage of regional issues with increased focus on Africa, South America and Asia.

To increase readership through relationships with complementary organizations that allow information exchange across disciplines (for example, between providers of Earth data and potential users within the project management community).

Audience

Earthzine primarily serves three sources of readership: (1) professional and technical readers in IEEE and GEO communities; (2) users and potential users of Earth information in governments, industry and non-governmental organizations and (3) the general public seeking reliable Earth information.

Strategies

Improve communication by sharing information between the international and interdisciplinary community of Earth Observers and those who use the information for societal and business management.

Provide content that:

Is up-to-date and relevant.

Informs the expert yet is accessible to the non-specialist.

Appeals to and educates the general population.

Attracts readers to visit on a regular basis.

Makes a unique contribution through focused thematic content.

Inspires and leads readers to further investigate and discover the wonders of Earth.

Tactics

Respond and adapt to reader feedback and usage

Provide core features such as Original Articles, Interviews, and Syndicated News

Support GEO in its focus on the nine Societal Benefit Areas

Content

Original Articles: General interest and theme-based articles from contributions written or collected by the editorial staff. Original articles comprise the unique contextual contribution of the Earthzine and serves to bridge the technical expert and non specialist in identified areas of societal needs

Syndicated articles: Environmental news that spans the nine societal benefit areas found on a cadre of on-line sources

People: Interviews, biographies, and brief notes about Earth observers

Reviews: Reviews of the latest books, websites, and multimedia related to the geosciences

OpEd: Columns from the Editor In Chief and Guest Editors along with opinion pieces from readers and contributors.

Image of the Day

Events: Updated continuously with the latest in conferences, workshops, experiments, and Earth events

Resources: Extensive list of websites with brief descriptions that are grouped and cross-referenced by theme.

ICEO/GEO News: Updates of the latest developments from the ICEO and GEO

About: Description of Earthzine, editorial staff, contact information

Publication Schedule

As a web-based publication, there is continuous updating that occurs on different temporal scales:

Syndicated information from the web is updated daily

Original articles are updated weekly and monthly

Over a quarterly period timed with the seasons, articles, reprints, editorials, opinions and resources centered about a common theme are published

A newsletter for subscribers is issued monthly on the full moon

Identified themes for the first eight quarters are:

2009

Quarter 1 – December 21 to March 20: Disaster Mitigation and Response (PDF)
Quarter 2 – March 21 to June 21: Global Energy Dependency (PDF)
Quarter 3 – June 22 to September 22: Meeting the Millennium Development Goals (PDF)
Quarter 4 – September 23 to December 20: Agriculture and Food Availability (PDF)

2010

Quarter 1 – December 21 to March 20: Earth Information Systems/Building Capacity (PDF)

Quarter 2 – March 21 to June 21: Observing the Oceans (PDF)

Quarter 3 – June 21-September 22: Global Human Health (PDF)

Quarter 4 – September 23-December 20: Ecosystems (PDF)

2011

Quarter 1 – December 21 to March 20: Disaster Management (PDF)

Quarter 2 – March 21 to June 21: Extreme Weather (PDF)

Quarter 3 – June 21-September 22: Urban Monitoring (PDF)

Quarter 4 – September 23-December 20: Water Availability (PDF)

2012

Quarter 1 – December 21 to March 20: Climate Concensus (PDF)

Quarter 2 – March 21 to June 21: Forest Resource Information

Quarter 3 – June 21-September 22: Chemistry

Quarter 4 – September 23-December 20: Environmental Awareness

Each theme may have an identified Guest Editor who will work with the Editor-In-Chief, Associate Editors and Managing Editor on the planning and arrangements for the theme content to be developed.

Organizational Structure

Board of Directors

Provides direction and guidance in all aspects of Earthzine

Elects Editor in Chief

Comprised of representatives from ICEO, External Advisors and Editor in Chief

Editor In Chief

Responsible for overall management of the site, staff and volunteers

Responsible for Earthzine content, design and publication

Recruits and coordinates contributions and participation of volunteer staff

Works with Associate Editors to select and plan thematic content for upcoming publications

Establishes teams to develop content for quarterly theme

Managing Editor

Work with the Editor In Chief, Associate Editors and staff to plan, develop and market the Earthzine‘s content. Manage the sites content and daily updates and market Earthzine to individuals and organizations.

Regional Coordinators in Africa, South America and Asia

Stimulate content for articles across disciplines addressing the societal benefit areas from a regional perspective

Associate Editors

Responsible for subject topic content

Coordinate contributions for thematic content to upcoming publications

Form team (Associate Editors and contributors) to develop content

Coordinate participation of contributing editors

Contribute to all aspects of web content

Syndication Editor

Posts Syndicated articles from variety of sources

Updates Resources and Events pages

Posts original articles

Special assignments on request

Design and Art Director

Responsible for look and feel of publications

On the horizon are features that will support the expansion of Earthzine and its relevance in developing regions:

Friends of Earthzine: cross-discipline information sharing with complementary organizations

Earthzine News: News articles and public announcements from around the world, targeted to Africa, South America and Asia.

In the Journal: Identifies the most influential/ground breaking articles that appear in scientific journals. A brief (~30 word) summary followed by the article’s abstract and when permission can be obtained, pdfs of the full article will be provided

Green Page: Provides articles about environmentally friendly businesses, organizations and technologies.

Competitions: Sponsored competitions that engage Earth Observers

Earth Pulse: Near-real-time observations of the Earth, dashboard to GEOPortal

Tutorials/Lectures: Contains presentations, audio and video recordings of some of the leaders in the geosciences

Observations: Multimedia blog space

Documents and Reports: Documents and reports available for public distribution.

Review This: Preliminary results/publications made available for public comment

Letters: Reader feedback

Education: Articles about students, teachers and education programs

Press Releases: Highlighting activities of particular interest to the Earth Observing community

Appendix A

Related Organizations and Terms

IEEE – Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, was founded in 1963 and is now the world’s leading professional association for the advancement of technology. As of 12/31/06, IEEE (pronounced eye-triple-E) had over 370,000 members in over 160 countries. IEEE is sponsoring Earthzine through the work of the ICEO.

http://www.ieee.org/

ICEO – IEEE Committee on Earth Observations facilitates broad-based IEEE participation in the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and its international effort to create a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) for applying Earth observation data and information for societal benefits. The focus of GEO and ICEO is helping to improve living conditions, particularly in developing countries, through the development of GEOSS, a realizable global resource for decision makers at all levels. To support this development, GEOSS requires the broad range of skills embodied in the IEEE membership from System of Systems (SoS) engineering and communication to standards and information applications.

http://www.ieee-earth.org/

GEO – the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) was launched in response to calls for action by the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and by the G8 (Group of Eight) leading industrialized countries. These high-level meetings recognized that international collaboration is essential for exploiting the growing potential of Earth observations to support decision making in an increasingly complex and environmentally stressed world. GEO has defined nine Societal Benefit Areas that influence Earthzine themes and site content.

http://www.earthobservations.org/

GEOSS – the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) provides decision-support tools to a wide variety of users. As with the Internet, GEOSS is a global and flexible network of content providers allowing decision makers to access an extraordinary range of information at their desk. This ‘system of systems’ proactively links together existing and planned observing systems around the world and supports the development of new systems where gaps currently exist. It promotes common technical standards so that data from the thousands of different instruments can be combined into coherent data sets. The ‘GEOPortal’ offers Internet access to GEOSS discovery tools (the “Clearinghouse”) for users seeking data, imagery and analytical software packages relevant to all parts of the globe. It connects users to existing data bases and portals and provides reliable, up-to-date and user friendly information – vital for the work of decision makers, planners and emergency managers. For users with limited or no access to the Internet, selected information is available via the ‘GEONETCast’ network of telecommunication satellites and individual ground stations.

http://www.earthobservations.org/geoss.shtml

GEOPortals provides entry points to access Earth Observation information and services. Portals connect to a system of existing data and information resources throught discovery resources such a “clearinghouses”,, addressing the GEO Societal Benefit Areas globally while providing national to regional perspective to achieve synergy and leverage. There are current three versions of the Portal that will be incorporated into an initial operating capability for GEOSS (for example, see

http://www.geoportal.org/ )

GEO Societal Benefit Areas

Disaster Mitigation: Reducing loss of life and property from natural and human-induced disasters

Health: Understanding environmental factors affecting human health and well-being

Energy: Improving the management of energy resources

Climate: Understanding, assessing, predicting, mitigating, and adapting to climate variability and change

Water: Improving water resource management through better understanding of the water cycle

Weather: Improving weather information, forecasting and warning

Ecosystems: Improving the management and protection of terrestrial, coastal and marine ecosystems

Agriculture: Supporting sustainable agriculture and combating desertification

Biodiversity: Understanding, monitoring and conserving biodiversity