Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP)
is a community of data and information technology
practitioners that come together to coordinate
Earth science interoperability efforts.
Participation in ESIP allows members to enhance
their data management capabilities.
ESIP arranges collaboration through in-person
meetings and virtually through collaboration
space on the Web.
Partners use these forums for knowledge exchange
and collaboration.
Created by NASA in 1998, the ESIP Federation
was formed in response to a National Research
Council recommendation calling for the involvement
of community stakeholders in the development
of NASA’s EOSDIS as a critical element of
the U.S. Global Change Research Program (http://www.gcrio.org/USGCRP/LaJolla/cover.html).
ESIP includes more than 120 member organizations.
ESIP membership includes federal data centers,
government research laboratories, research
universities, education resource providers,
technology developers, and nonprofit and commercial
enterprises.
== History ==
ESIP is a community drawn from agencies and
individuals who provide handling for Earth
and environmental science data and information.
ESIP was founded in 1998 by NASA in response
to a National Research Council (NRC) review
of the Earth Observation System Data and Information
System (EOSDIS).
The NRC called on NASA to develop a new, distributed
structure that would be operated and managed
by the Earth science community that would
include those responsible for all elements
of Earth observation, including observation,
research, and ultimately, application and
education.
Beginning with 24 NASA-funded partners, ESIP's
purpose was to evolve methods to make Earth
science data easy to preserve, locate, access
and use by research, education, and commercial
interests.
NASA developed the ESIP Federation by starting
with a set of working prototype projects called
ESIPs, representing both the research and
applications development communities.
These prototype projects were joined by nine
NASA data archive centers to form the core
of the early ESIP Federation and were responsible
for creating its governing structures and
the collaborative community it is today.
By 2001, the ESIP Federation created a non-profit
corporation called the Foundation for Earth
Science (Foundation).
Through a Memorandum of Understanding with
the ESIP Federation, the foundation provided
management support to the ESIP Federation
as it moved from an operational prototype
to an independent organization.
In 2002, Foundation staff were hired to support
the work of the ESIP Federation.
The foundation helped create operating policies
for the ESIP Federation and facilitated the
development of its first strategic plan, adopted
by the ESIP Federation’s Assembly in 2004.
NOAA’s data centers joined the ESIP Federation.
Beginning in July 2007 in Madison, Wisconsin,
a Strategic Planning Working Group was formed
to develop a new vision of the ESIP Federation
in its second decade.
The ESIP Federation’s partner organizations
include all NOAA, NASA and USGS Earth observing
data centers, government research laboratories,
research universities, modelers, education
resource providers, technology developers,
nonprofits and commercial enterprises.
In 2009 and 2010 new ESIP Federation communities
formed around data preservation and stewardship,
information quality, and data visualization.
== Partners ==
ESIP is made up of more than 110 member organizations
that span NASA, NOAA, EPA, USGS and DOE research-funded
groups.
ESIP's partners represent earth science data
and technology interests.
There are four types of partners; Type I includes
Data Centers, Type II are data and information
product providers, Type III are commercial
and non-commercial organizations that develop
tools for Earth Science and Type IV are the
funding providers, NASA, NOAA and USGS.
A full listing of ESIP Federation Partners
is at the organization's website.
== Interests ==
Technology
Semantic technologies
Cloud Computing
Web Services
Metadata
Standards
Emerging technologies
ModelingScience
Atmospheric
Climate
Terrestrial
Oceanography
Hydrology
Environmental
Geology
EcologyApplied science
Air quality
Water resources
Natural disasters
Carbon management
== 
Activities ==
Visualization programs
Standardized QA/QC processes
Standardized metadata initiatives
Educational outreach to provide public school
teachers with quality science units
Semantic web and ontology development
Energy and climate initiatives
