CEOS Analysis Ready Data and the Private Sector - Early Progress and the Way Forward.

This paper has been developed to address one deliverable in the CEOS ARD Strategy [1] and provides an initial evaluation of the views from the private sector on how the CEOS community needs to engage with the broader community to successfully advance the CEOS Analysis Ready Data (CARD) initiative to the next level. Further, the paper offers an overview of the next steps that the CEOS community should consider to ensure all three main stakeholder groups; a) Earth Observation (EO) data providers; b) Big Data hosts and c) aggregators and data users are actively involved in the CARD initiative. The full version of the paper can be found at the CEOS webpage [2]. Methods of evaluation included consultation with a small group from the private sector through an initial teleconference, follow-up emails and informal face-to-face discussions. Outcomes from this initial engagement show that the private sector recognises the CARD work as an important initiative and is open for future collaboration with the CEOS community. The next steps proposed in this paper include: –Share Information on CEOS Analysis Ready Data to build engagement support, –Understand the Industry Perspective, –Engage Industry in CARD Specifications, –Move CEOS specifications into the broader community.