Toward New Partnerships In Remote Sensing Government, the Private Sector, and Earth Science Research (2002) / Chapter Skim
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4. Two Ways of Doing Business
4. Two Ways of Doing Business
Pages 31-43
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From page 31... ...
It is unlikely to succeed by serving the needs of small, niche markets such as the scientific research community. Despite these obvious differences, those in both the scientific community and the commercial remote sensing industry believe that significant advantages are to be gained by working together.
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From page 32... ...
The private sector often looks to scientists and engineers for innovations in the construction, use, and application of new sensors and new algorithms; for research that eventually leads to the development of new applications; and for training technical experts who will work in applied settings and be responsible for using commercial imagery.1 Although both the commercial remote sensing industry and the scientific research community are important for policy and economic reasons in the United States, and government science agencies are important to each, significant differences and some incompatibilities still exist in the ways these groups operate. Such differences complicate the process of building partnerships.
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From page 33... ...
Another area in which the requirements of the private sector and the scientific community differ is related to instrument design and development of algorithms. The remote sensing industry understandably takes a proprietary approach to instrument design and algorithms.
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From page 34... ...
Science Requirements The science community operates in a way that often appears diametrically opposed to the modus operandi of the commercial remote sensing industry. Scientists generally have very specific data requirements, demanding greater assurance of data quality than most commercial users.
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From page 35... ...
Scientists also require verification and validation of remote sensing data according to open protocols. Private sector data providers respond to a different set of requirements, which are a result of their need to operate a commercially successful enterprise.
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From page 36... ...
Workshop participants suggested that data management protocols should be part of the overall design of all operational data production systems, including public-private partnerships. Data management encompasses quality assurance, validation and verification, data processing, and data archiving.
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From page 37... ...
Remote sensing data archives contribute to the nation's information infrastructure and provide benefits to global change research, environmental monitoring and projections, environmental and food security, public health, disaster management, and sustainable management of natural resources. Workshop participants stressed that all raw data and related 6For additional background on validation of data for science at Stennis Space Center, see |
From page 38... ...
Given the cost of archiving and its long-term public rather than short-term commercial benefits, it is unlikely that the private sector will assume this responsibility. At present, firms that obtain commercial licenses through NOAA are required to provide, at a reasonable cost, land observation data to the National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive maintained by the USGS in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, before they purge the data.7 Data produced or obtained for scientific use under a public-private partnership are in a somewhat different category.
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From page 39... ...
Many of the issues related to the interests of the scientific community, the public sector, and the private sector were explored in the NRC report A Question of Balance: Private Rights and the Public Interest in Scientific and Technical Databases.l° There is no easy solution to this problem, and both the scientific and commercial remote sensing communities have debated the issue of data access in the context of a potential Landsat data continuity mission.ll Workshop participants suggested that because the value of data changes over time, private sector data producers might reduce the cost of older commercial data to the research community as a way both to protect their intellectual property and to meet the needs of scientists. Imposing a 14-day delay in providing scientific access to data to ensure the value of the data for commercial customers has been the practice in the SeaWiFS project.
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From page 40... ...
NOAA, the U.S. government agency responsible for licensing commercial remote sensing systems, can encourage private sector firms to employ favorable terms for use of the data in research.l2 NOAA may also require that an applicant have a nondiscriminatory access policy and provide broadly defined data rights for systems developed with significant government funding.
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From page 41... ...
, Implementing the Government Performance and Results Act for Research: A Status Report, Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, 2001; NAS, NAE, and TOM, Evaluating Federal Research Programs: Research and the Government Performance and Results Act, Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, 1999.
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From page 42... ...
Realistic cost accounting for public-private partnerships is a separate issue. Because it involves both the public and private sectors, accounting information required for evaluating the true costs of a public-private partnerships may be different from general financial data that are used in agency accounting practices.
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From page 43... ...
Private sector firms producing remote sensing data, on the other hand, must charge scientists for access to their data, both to recover their initial investments and to make a profit for their investors. If the use of commercially generated remote sensing satellite data by the government and the scientific community increases, the need to resolve intellectual property issues will intensify.
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