Summary

The FGDC is continuing to advance GDA 2018 and OMB A-16 objectives which include further advancements in geospatial data technology, and services of GeoPlatform.gov. This fixed price and performance based task order 10 is focused on advancing mdToolkit efforts over the past 2 years. mdToolkit is moving from CSDGM to ISO as the modern approach supporting USGS, FGDC, and DOI transition goals including plausible support to assist in the DOI EDI effort in documenting data assets. This continued transition will improve on community-driven content  standards, providing flexible and adaptable documentation to meet the broad array of scientific data  produced by the bureau and efficiently guide authors in developing meaningful documentation as well as allowing for semantic and AI/ML capabilities to/can be significantly enhanced  through development of metadata content requirements that enable use of common semantics to  support real-time searches for data meeting desired criteria.

Problem and Solution

The mdToolkit required epic capability enhancement needs discovery, development and operations to continue this advancement. Xentity began by providing application service developments and enhancements. This includes efforts in code discovery and source metadata profile and vocabulary discovery. Also, Xentity provided operations and maintenance for the mdEditor. We coordinated with GeoPlatform leadership, FGDC, and technical sponsors on domain names, security, scanning, initializing monitoring, and notifications.

Outcome and Benefit

Within the first nine months, Xentity proposed to address vocabulary management, metadata creation enhancements, and mdToolkit fixes to deliver a 1.0 version. Our code discovery aided in reaching said 1.0. Furthermore, while conducting operations and maintenance, Xentity worked to prioritize and revise the backlog for any future tasks.