[Platforms] Proposal for revision of platform governance (initiated by ICES)

Fri Feb 12 15:28:39 GMT 2016

All,
I have been monitoring the discussion and have decided to vote NO. 
Although there are numerous difficulties with the current set up, I 
think we need to listen to the concerns raised by the communities that 
use the codes we are managing. There needs to be more discussion about 
how to come to some reasonable accommodation for both the code managers 
and the communities that we are trying to support.
Best regards,
Don Collins
NOAA/National Centers for Environmental Information

On 1/29/16 10:17 AM, Neil Holdsworth wrote:
>
> Dear Platform Group,
>
> Please respond to this proposal with a “Yes” to accept the proposal or 
> “No” to reject the proposal by close of business February 12. No reply 
> will be considered as a “Yes”.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ICES has been assigning codes for JCOMMOP vessels for the past 4 
> months. This has given us the opportunity to test and re-evaluate the 
> effectiveness of the Platform code system now that the predominant 
> platform class has moved from research vessels to ships of 
> opportunity. We are finding that these vessels are changing name, 
> flag, and owner much more often than research vessels and according to 
> the current Platform Decision Tree, some vessels will need 5-6 codes 
> in their data collecting lifetime. We believe that this is an 
> unnecessary complication, especially for vessels which have IMO 
> numbers since IMO numbers never change and can be used for tracking.
>
> /We would like to propose focusing on identification of a given 
> platform which follows the hull and not the country of any governance 
> (flag, owner or institute). We will keep track of the governance 
> histories of the platform in the platform request system./
>
> //
>
> In order to do this, we propose:
>
> ·a new attribute for “Operational Governance”. It will allow multiples 
> and will be based on EDMO codes.
>
> ·replace the decision tree with a simplified process
>
> ·an update to vocab.ices.dk to offer a clear linking between related 
> platform codes
>
> ·to only create codes based on a random generated unique identifier 
> (see development history)
>
> The decision process will be as follows:
>
> If there is an IMO number:
>
> ·Attribute “Country”, i.e. Flag of country where platform is 
> registered, is mandatory.
>
> ·The flag and call sign will be set for the current registration of 
> the platform.
>
> If there is no IMO number:
>
> ·Attribute “Operational Governance” is mandatory and designated by 
> EDMO codes.
>
> ·When the flag/call sign/MMSI/Notes etc. changes, the attributes will 
> be updated. Name changes will be documented in the “Note” attribute as 
> “Built as name, became name 2 in xxxx, name 3 in yyyy, name 4 in zzzz 
> etc.". The “Previous name” attribute will have the latest previous 
> name. The previous flag/call sign attributes will be “unaccepted” but 
> kept on the Attribute History page to aid user searching and kept on 
> the Action History page for tracking.
>
> For both cases above:
>
> ·A code will be assigned as a random generated unique identifier and 
> it will not change.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Neil
>
> *Development history*
>
> When ICES first started assigning platform codes, the majority of 
> codes were for research vessels which were collecting nationally 
> funded monitoring data or project data. The system was based on the 
> assumption that these national data were collected by their national 
> vessels so the first two digits of the codes designated country.
>
> ICES then became part of the SeaDataNet project, new attributes were 
> added and a decision tree was developed to determine what was needed 
> to assign a code. The decision tree was accepted by the SeaDataNet 
> Platform Governance Group after many discussions:
>
>   * should there be a country part of the code?
>   * what type of governance should determine the country part of the
>     platform code: owner of the vessel, Institute collecting the data,
>     flag of the country where the vessel was registered?
>   * Should an IMO code be added for identification when most research
>     vessels can’t receive an IMO number?
>
> Among other attributes, it was decided that the vessels' flag should 
> determine the country part of the code and IMO codes should be added 
> when available.
>
> As more platform classes were added to L06 (and therefore added to the 
> platform request system), new situations and questions came up:
>
>   * what is the country when multiple Institutes from different
>     countries share the vessel during the year or even share during
>     the same cruise? See the POGO initiative
>     http://www.pogo-oceancruises.org/content/content.asp?pageid=4
>   * what is the country when multiple countries own the platform?
>
> In preparation for running out of codes and removing semantics from 
> codes, in March 2010 it was decided by the platform group that the 
> country part of the code could be abandoned and the codes extended 
> although in practice we have continued to use the country as the first 
> two digits of the four digit code.
>
> In 2015, additional changes were made to accommodate JCOMMOPs vessels. 
> It was decided that the codes would be extended to 6 digits once the 
> current 4 digit system ran out of codes for a particular country, 
> additional attributes were added and the possibility to add multiple 
> countries was incorporated into the request program. Almost 2000 
> platforms have since been requested by JCOMMOPs of which 98% are 
> Vessels of Opportunity. This has changed the predominant platform 
> class of the platform code system.
>
> *Neil Holdsworth*
> Head of Data and Information
> International Council for the Exploration of the Sea
>
> E: neil.holdsworth at ices.dk <mailto:neil.holdsworth at ices.dk>
>
> 	
>
> W: www.ices.dk <http://www.ices.dk/>
>
> T: +45 3338 6718
>
> 	
>
> M: +45 5362 6718
>
> H.C. Andersens Boulevard 44-46
> 1553 Copenhagen V. Denmark
>
> Follow ICES on LinkedIn <http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1153507>
>
>
>
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-- 
—
Don Collins

[NOTE: The opinions expressed in this email are those of the author alone and do not
necessarily reflect official NOAA, Department of Commerce, or US government policy.]

Donald W. Collins
Oceanographer
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
(formerly NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center)
NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI
SSMC3 Fourth Floor
1315 East West Highway
Silver Spring MD 20910-3282
Donald.Collins at noaa.gov
http://www.ncei.noaa.gov
Telephone: 301.713.4853
Fax: 301.713.3302

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