Principle 10: WIS 2.0 will provide a Catalogue containing metadata that describes both data and the service(s) provided to access that data
BENEFIT:
Users will be able to easily find the data in WIS that interests them, locate the most convenient Web service with which to access that data, and determine how to best use that Web service to meet their needs.
Note that the update to the WIS Catalogue provides an opportunity to rationalize the catalogue content and thereby improve users' experience when searching for data. The WIS Catalogue currently contains around 150,000 records - most of which describe GTS bulletins. Searches usually return many positive matches, each of which refers to a particular bulletin, and thus presents a very fragmented way to access data. Guidance will be provided based on helping users complete common data access or usage tasks that advises data providers how to organize data for publication via Web services, and therefore how that data is described in the WIS Catalogue.
WIS 2.0 enables data and Web services to be discovered via commercial search engines, thereby enhancing the discoverability of authoritative weather, water and climate data.