Bruce Caron, Ph.D., executive director, The New Media Studio, Santa Barbara, CA
CONTACT THE NEW MEDIA STUDIO: exdir@newmediastudio.org
These data access and visualization/analysis tools will provide THREDDS users with new, client-side capabilities. These tools are downloaded to Windows (95-2000, XP soon)or Mac (8.5-9.1_OS X soon) computers and are linked to content/data delivered via the internet or on local media. Data Discovery is a thick-client alternative to Java based, server-side data delivery solutions.
| February 10, 2004 |
| Instructions: Click below to download WINDOWS beta application for THREDDS. Un-ZIP the archive. Open up the folders to reveal the El Niño 1.0.exe file. Double-click this to start the application. |
The Data Discovery Toolkit and Foundry
The activities of the project will realize the following goals: Bring research-level data visualization and analysis capabilities to undergraduate and secondary classroom use in physics, mathematics, engineering, earth system science, and environmental studies; Create user-side interoperability solutions for current and potential NSDL data collections, including terabytes of data stored at NASA and NOAA archives (DAACs), as well as accessing data output from models; Build a model user-centered (or user-near) data visualization graphical user interface (GUI) that can be shared and reused by the NSDL user community; Promote data-literacy as one of the goals of the NSDL by creating tools that enable students to manipulate real (and real-time where needed) data sets; Create an internet-based, tool-building community center (the Foundry); and, Demonstrate the potential value of these Data Discovery Tools by building three prototype applications and testing these in an undergraduate classroom environment. The proposed Data Discovery Tools are based on a novel technology that melds the data visualization and analysis capabilities of Kodak's IDL§ with the interactive, multimedia authoring capabilities of Macromedia's Director§. The key to this authoring technology is the EDMI§ (Earth Data Multimedia Instrument) software. The EDMI is a very simply a cross-platform†Windows and MacOS†compatible IDL plug-in to Macromedia Director. The proposed tools and foundry offers several intrinsic advantages that add production value, interoperability value, and, most of all, use value. The proposed tools are all authored in environments based on leading off-the-shelf software. This means that there are already many potential partners within the NSDL community capable of joining in this effort on the tool development side, and it means that production time and expense are kept at a minimum. The tools also acquire advanced data access capabilities directly from their underlying software. This means that these tools already can access a vast selection of digital data resources. And the tools will be multiple in number, simple in design, powerful in their data handling capabilities, and linked to internet-based curricular materials developed by this project or by future users. This means that teachers looking for a digital laboratory exercise can either find an existing tool that does precisely what they need to accomplish in the classroom, or they can query the Foundry to collaboratively create a new tool or a new lab exercise for an existing tool. The underlying value for this project, however, comes also from the value of advanced visualization capabilities for the future of SMET education.
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View PDF files that describe the EDMI technology that
The New Media Studio will be using to bring THREDDS-delivered data to
the desktop.
(Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader or plugin)
The New Media Studio is a member of the ESIP Federation, and a collaborator in DLESE
The Data Discovery Tools use the EDMI technology (licensed by RSI to TNMS) to build customizeable modules for data discovery.
