[esip-semanticweb] Moving Semantic Web Cluster to Semantic Web Committee

[Tom Narock]

All,

At our last telecon on Tuesday, we introduced the idea of transitioning from a Cluster to a Committee. Historically, Clusters were meant to have an end date and be temporary groups within ESIP. Myself, and I believe many others, feel that the Semantic Web, in Earth science and in general, has risen to a level where a more permanent presence is warranted. 

As far as I am aware, transitioning to a Committee will have no impact on our day to day operations. On the positive side, it will allow us to request a yearly budget from ESIP and better plan out our yearly activities. It will also provide us with more options to access ESIP leadership and proceedings - not that there have been any issues in this area now.

At this point, I would like to open the topic up for broader discussion. I’m interested to hear your thoughts and concerns you might have. If you have suggestions for what a Semantic Web Committee might look like, please send those along as well.

Email discussion is a good starting point. In the coming weeks we’ll be continuing with wiki pages and other online discussion options. Stay tuned.

Tom