Interoperability

Interview with Daniele Bailo, Zhiming Zhao, and Ari Asmi, who explain the key components forming the ENVRI-hub: the ENVRI Catalogue of Services, the ENVRI Knowledge Base, and the ENVRI Use Cases. Daniele, can you explain in more detail why these three components are crucial to the ENVRI-hub? Daniele: These are three distinct but complementary elements used as containers to support the provision of heterogeneous datasets, services, and software within ENVRI. ...

For the last few years, let us say about three, people in my field have often talked about the F.A.I.R. principles: loved by European officials, regarded with suspicion by computer engineers, partly approved by scientists. These principles have a significant impact on research areas that in some way deal with data and data sharing. Question: which area of research has nothing to do with data and their distribution? Answer: almost none. Logical inference: the FAIR principles, whether we say “great!” or “alas”, concern almost all researchers. ...

Because of my job at INGV, where I am involved in the major EPOS European Project, I spend a lot of time reading papers, blog posts, and other resources, not to mention discussing with great colleagues, all dealing with the central subject of system interoperability. Actually, the real topic for me is interoperability, whose meanings vary across the fields of knowledge, and life, in which we use the concept. In the social sciences we may call it interculturality or interculturalism. In economics, we might call it price, the mechanism that enables exchange of goods. But that is another story, and I think the idea is clear. ...