Framework for information management in an European LTER Network: experiences from ALTER-Net

The paper summarizes the work and results of ALTER-Net in the field of information management and knowledge transfer which aimed to facilitate data sharing. Data sharing can broadly be considered through three aspects: technical, content, and legal. Within ALTER-Net the focus of information management was on the technical aspect. The proposed information management framework consists of the following components: metadata collection (LTER InfoBase), definition of a common domain model and of an ontology (SERONTO) and the technical concept of the data integration framework. The semantic mediation system, an important part of the data integration framework based on existing tools, was successfully tested using SERONTO as the common ontology for integration. The paper highlights the experiences of ALTER-Net in these areas including the proof of concept for the semantic mediation system. LTER contributes to the inquiry into how to manage the continuity of digital data and how to create a sustainable information infrastructure for all levels of the LTER Europe network including the site, platform and network level responsibilities.