Dear WG2 members,
during the last months numerous e-mails have been sent around in the discussion on the future of the
mini-SEED (mseed) format as initialized by the strawman proposal by IRIS, both to the FDSN WG2 mailing
list and also off-line. These e-mails have shown there is a lot of interest to think constructively about a
modernized mseed format while at the same time there are severe concerns related to, in particular,
backwards compatibility as the current format is strongly embedded in today's seismological infrastructure.
Following the line of proposals that were made by IRIS-DMC (the strawman) and by EIDA, the future of mseed may
be directed in two ways, one that will break the backward compatibility and one that will preserve this.
Prior to evaluating both proposals we need to have a clear vision of what is needed to fulfil our future
requirements and how we can design this. Also the impact on today's infrastructure must be considered in
this process, ideally with input from manufacturers, users, data centers and software developers.
The proposal by the FDSN Chair for a meeting in late 2016, the suggestions to set up a Working Group and
the offer by ORFEUS to organize and host such a meeting in Europe provides the momentum now to meet,
discuss and agree jointly on the process to design and adopt an extended or new standard.
Specifically, ORFEUS offers to organize a 2-day workshop in February or March 2017, to be held
in the Netherlands. Travel costs for 5-6 participants from seismological institutes or data centers outside
Europe can be sponsored by ORFEUS on request. Below you will find a link to a Doodle with suggested dates. If
you have interest to participate in this workshop please fill in the Doodle before Oct 26. Preferably the
number of participants is limited to 20.
http://doodle.com/poll/znncfs2ett9v3ma8
Tentative program/topics:
- Motivations and vision for a new format
- Identifying current needs for a new format
- Design ideas
- Evaluation of impact and tentative implementation plan
- Draft a white paper (completed before Kobe meeting)
Best regards,
Reinoud Sleeman
Reinoud Sleeman