[Platforms] New ship codes?

[Roy Lowry]

Dear All,

Prepare for Roy's evening sermon.

I guess Michele's query is about do we include merchant ships in the  ICES list or not?  My pitch on this is be pragmatic.  We don't have to cover everything that floats, but if it returns ROSCOPs or data them we need, as Mitch says, to have it covered.

Two more issues have arisen in the past week or so.

The first is ship code governance.  My vision is that the platforms list should be the governance.  That was certainly my vision and I was trying to set Julie up as a list recruitment agant, but with limited success. So, Marilynn I would say that people should not make direct requests to you.  Instead they should be invited to join the list (e-mail me) and submit their requests via the list. In that way our collective knowledge and intelligence can make decisions rather than individuals putting you under pressure.

The second is the nature of the 'thing' (i.e. entity) represented by the ship code.  In the past, the opinion has been that the entity is the name.  This was certainly Harry's view and I've recently heard Bob Keeley spouting the same gospel.  BUT IT IS WRONG!!!!!

In an ideal world, the entity should be the 'hull' and everything else (name, callsign, flag, etc., etc.) should be attributes.  Unfortunately, we are in a pragmatic situation where we manage ship metadata as a vocabulary rather than as a metadata schema designed for ships.  So, we have to tweak our metadata entity definition accordingly.

The first change we HAVE to make is that the code represents a given hull operating under a given name.  If the entity is just the hull then such significant platforms as RRS Charles Darwin disappear from our metadata for good as they are relabelled RV Ocean Explorer.  We also need to tidy up where one code equals one name equals several hulls such as we have just done for Meteor.

This definition should cover us.  In most cases where there is a SIGNIFICANT (ie involving a change of operational practice) change of governance the ship's name changes as well.  So it was when the NERC academic research vessels Challenger and Charles Darwin were sold to commercial outfits.  However, in the UK there is a CEFAS research vessel RV Corystes was sold to another, completely different, in terms of mission, organisation but the name remained the same.  This is a real difference that needs to be reflected in metadata.

So, to cover this we need to switch our definition to 'a hull operating under a given name under a given governance' Note that this does not mean (as Susanne feared) a new code every time a ship changed operator.  We only need to switch if the governace TYPE changes.

This is my view.  I was hoping to debate it once the platform list grew to sufficient size, but pressures on Marilynn have forced my hand.

Anyone disagree?

Cheers, Roy.

>>> francis Mitchell <Francis.Mitchell at noaa.gov> 03/27/07 6:03 PM >>>
Hi Michele:

We like to identify every data set with a platform.  It helps in duplication

=Mitch=


Michele FICHAUT wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> We have received new data from the GTS to be loaded in the Coriolis 
> database that come from 2 ship of opportunity not referenced in NOAA or 
> ICES. All the information we have on these ship is given below
>
> WCAJ : POLAR ENDEAVOUR
> http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=WCAJ
> http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=2426675
> http://www.st.nmfs.gov/pls/webpls/cgv_pkg.vessel_id_list?vessel_id_in=1106807
>
>
> OZWP2: MORA MAERSK
> http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=OZWP2
>
> Should we create new codes for these 2 ship? Do you think we need to ask 
> for a ship code at ICES or NOAA for every ship of opportunity used to 
> collect data?
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Michèle
>
>   


-- 
Francis Mitchell
NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center
1315 East West Highway, SSMC3, Room 4637
Silver Spring, MD 20910
301-713-3272 x113

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