Ocean data and Information Network for the Caribbean and south america Region (ODINCARSA)
Güingla, R.M. (2003). Ocean data and Information Network for the Caribbean and south america Region (ODINCARSA). [S.n.]: [s.l.]. 26 pp.
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| Keywords |
Information handling
Marine/Coastal |
| Abstract |
ODINCARSA was set up primarily as a mechanism for assessing the current and potential state of development of national data centres and to create the means for mutual capacity-building in South America and the Caribbean. It further sought to develop a cooperation network for managing and exchanging oceanographic data and information within these regions. ODINCARSA's advent was consolidated by the staging of the first planning workshop, held on the permises of the Oceanographic Institute of the Ecuadorian Navy, in Guayaquil, and attended by Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Mexico, Cuba, observers from the United States, and Spain.The concept behind ODINCARSA is that the national data centres cooperating with the network can improve their staff skills both within the centres themselves and nationwide, and that they can interact with the national coordinators and the regional coordinators in order to participate fully in regional projects such as: GODAR, meta data catalogues,a regional oceanographic database, the creation of Atlas, the use of directories such as GLODIR and a regional ocean portal permitting the development of member countries.ODINCARSA is the first step towards setting up a comprehensive information network that might become the most flexible and reliable means of gaining access to other IOC programs, especially given the growing need for and arguments in favor of creating a South-East Pacific GOOS (Global Ocean Observing System).Potentially, ODINCARSA is the means of keeping national coordinators informaed of all activities relating to IOC programs, be they concerned with policy, science or training. In turn, this information will make for increased participation by the countries of the region in observation programs such as GOOS, JCOMM, GLOSS, WOCE and ARGO, assistance programs such as POGO, and, above all, in a proliferation of IODE products, so that they can be made more readily and widely available for use in the countries of the region. ODINCARSA introduces us into information society, a forward-looking society, a society set on reducing poverty and enhancing human development, and might well be the best springboard for achieving this difficult task. |
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