OUT OF THE FOG II Workshop

Plotting a Course for Information Exchange in the Gulf of Maine

Why: The first Out of the Fog workshop held at the New England Aquarium in fall 1998 resulted in general agreement on the need to improve data and information exchange among interest groups within the Gulf of Maine. Participants felt that a regional electronic information and data exchange could improve resource management decisions by empowering people through increased efficiency in information and data distribution. There was no agreement on the exact form of the exchange.

What: Out of the Fog II will pick-up where the first Out of the Fog workshop left off. The workshop will briefly review advances in appropriate resources and tools for the region. A particular focus will be on how to make effective use of these to address the needs of users such as community groups, K-12 educators, fishers, etc. The goal of the workshop is to develop consensus on a workplan for the establishment of a Gulf of Maine environmental information exchange. This includes short and long term objectives, identifying partners and their contributions and milestones. The workplan will benefit from a number of directed work activities that have been supported by the Action Committee (see WWW.GOMINFOEX.ORG for list).

Deliverables:

1. A meeting report documenting the discussions and conclusions; and,
2. a detailed workplan to establish a Gulf of Maine Environmental Information Exchange.

Who: Interested representatives from the various information users and provider groups.

Where: Saint John, New Brunswick.

When: 1:00 o'clock Thursday November 2nd through to noon Saturday November 4th

How: A strawman document describing a potential scenario for information exchange will be prepared by the Action Committee and circulated to all invitees in advance of the meeting. The bulk of the workshop will be round table discussions and workgroups. Smaller breakout groups may be used to address particular ideas, actions and issues.

The Strawman will present one or more options for possible development of an information exchange system. It may use case studies of client groups to define user needs, present information use and desired functions that will help the users access and use environmental information. This document will be used in the workshop to initiate discussions on what is desired and how it might be achieved.

Background: The workshop report from the '98 Out of the Fog, GOMINFOEX terms of reference, contacts, action items, etc., can be found at the following web site: WWW.GOMINFOEX.ORG .

For More Information: