November 2006

• Interoperability on the horizon
• Geoscience Australia signs up to joint venture

Interoperability on the horizon

The first public demonstration in Australia of GeoSciML, a new web-based data delivery tool, has been completed at the International Solid Earth and Environmental Grid (SEE Grid) Conference in Canberra.

Geoscience Australia, CSIRO and GeoScience Victoria completed the demonstration in front of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, the Hon Bob Baldwin MP, and a crowd of earth, environmental and computer scientists. The demonstration highlighted the immediate impact this will provide to the future management and exploration of Australia's natural resources.

"GeoSciML is a new web platform that enables users to access and exchange data between computers, and view internationally standardised information immediately," Mr Baldwin said.

"GeoSciML standards are the result of a collaborative project involving Australia, France, Canada, UK and Sweden."

In introducing the demonstration, Dr Lesley Wyborn, a Senior Scientist with Geoscience Australia, said that "data sharing between computers, both internationally and nationally is difficult due to the number of different computer systems, technologies and programs that organisations use. Time is lost as data is re-formatted to suit individual systems."

"Using GeoSciML enables different computers to talk to one another through web technology. During the live demonstration, data was accessed from six countries, and users were able to make international comparisons immediately."

"The development of GeoSciML will impact significantly on mineral exploration, as well as environmental and emergency management due to increased access to the pools of data that have, up until now, been locked away on computers," said Dr Wyborn.

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Geoscience Australia signs up to joint venture

Geoscience Australia has moved a step closer to acquiring of a sensitive high resolution ion microprobe which will enhance opportunities to apply geochronology investigation to mineral exploration.

The agreement with the Canberra firm Australian Scientific Instruments (ASI) establishes a partnership to share the use of the new equipment for dating rocks.

The 15-year agreement will allow ASI to test new hardware and software and conduct customer demonstrations on the instrument after it is installed at Geoscience Australia by mid 2007.

The new equipment will allow Geoscience Australia to control the collection of data on the age of rocks for its own use and that of its partners in the State and Territory geological surveys as well as the delivery of information to industry and other interest groups.

Data from the new ion microprobe will provide another avenue for geoscientists to understand the geological potential of onshore Australia, which will provide valuable support for Geoscience Australia's activities under the new Onshore Energy Security Initiative.

Media Release

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