Paris, 28 June 2008 - 41st Session of IOC Executive Council discusses IODE
Mr Greg Reed, IODE Co-Chair of the IOC Committee on International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) made a presentation on progress of the IODE programme since the 2008 IOC Assembly.
Mr Reed's presentation (powerpoint and audio) is available HERE . Member States expressed great appreciation for the progress made by IODE with interventions from Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, France, Greece, Japan, Madagascar, Russia, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, United States of America, and International Ocean Institute (IOI).
The Executive Council considered the IOC Strategic Plan for Oceanographic Data and Information Management as a new milestone in the history of IOC and welcomed the establishment of the IOC Data and Information Management Advisory Group. It noted that the Group would serve two purposes: (i) to guide IODE towards the development of integrated data management and multi-disciplinary data bases, and (ii) to provide a link between IODE and other organizations, including science groups
The Executive Council requested the Executive Secretary in future, in the preparation of the operational plan, for every project that IOC undertakes, and that has impact on data and information, the budgetary implications be identified together with a clear description of the expected outcomes from IODE.
The Executive Council expressed its appreciation of the continued support by the Government of Flanders to the IOC Project Office for IODE in Ostend, Belgium, noting that this facility had already increased the effectiveness, visibility and impact of IODE considerably. It called on the Government of Flanders (Kingdom of Belgium) and other IOC Member States to continue supporting this facility.
The Executive Council called on IODE to play an active role in the 50th Anniversary celebrations of IOC and identified the 20th Session of the IOC technical Committee for IODE as a suitable occasion.
A complete extract from the summary report on agenda item 4.5.1 (IODE) is available HERE .
meeting of the OBIS Governing Board (Rome,
28–29 April 2008), offered to provide an institutional framework for
the continuation of OBIS. The OBIS Governing
Board welcomed the offer, but recommended that this partnership should
be further elaborated and a business model be presented to the IOC
Assembly for consideration at its 25th Session, in 2009. The Executive Council recognized the importance and
value of CoML, the particular value of the OBIS component as a global
repository for marine biological data, and the potential of a second
phase of OBIS to expand data in this vital repository and to improve
the interface for global access and exchange of marine biological data.
The Executive Council considered OBIS a highly attractive future component or partner of IODE, and welcomed
the wish of the OBIS Governing Board to investigate different scenarios
for a close affiliation between IOC and OBIS, or the adoption of OBIS
by the IOC. It requested the Executive Secretary and
the IOC Data and Information Management Advisory Group to work together
with the OBIS Secretariat to develop a document for submission to the
25th Session of the IOC Assembly in 2009. The Executive Council considered
Koïchiro Matsuura , Director-General of UNESCO today addressed the IOC Executive Council at the occasion of the opening of its 41st Session, taking place at UNESCO's Headquarters in Paris between 24 June and 1 July 2008. You can listen to Mr Matsuura's speech 
