Richard Pepe, Editor-in-Chief of the Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) - see more information here - is retiring today. Richard joined FAO in 1982 and has been working for ASFA ever since. For IODE, participation in ASFA as one of the founding organizations was the really first activity in the area of marine information management. Today the ASFA database contains more than 1.3 million bibliographic references (or records) to the world's aquatic science literature accessioned since 1971 (for some journals and/or subject areas the coverage precedes 1971). Input to the ASFA Database (i.e. the bibliographic references) is prepared by the international network of ASFA Partners, who are together responsible for the monitoring of more than 5000 serial publications as well as books, reports, conference proceedings, and grey literature. Without Richard's drive and commitment ASFA would not be as successful and comprehensive as it is today and despite the explosive growth of the world wide web ASFA is still the bibliographic reference tool of choice for many marine and freshwater researchers. It is for this reason that IODE gave Richard the IODE Achievement Award (photo: GE-MIM Chair Linda Pikula giving the award to Richard during the 2010 ASFA Advisory Board in Morocco) in 2010. Let's wish Richard a happy retirement!
The staff of the IOC Project Office for IODE, Oostende, Belgium extends its best wishes for 2011 to all members of the IODE family! (L to R: Adi, Kristin, Mark, Lies, Mika and Peter)
New Zealand designated Mr Kevin Macka as the IODE National Coordinator for Oceanographic Data Management and IODE National Coordinator for Marine Information Management. Mr Mackay is Marine Data Manager at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and its also a member of the management team of NIWA's Environmental Information Centre. More information on Mr Mackay can be found HERE
Shri E. Pattabhi Rama Rao, Scientist-D and Head Data and information Management Group (DMG) at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) (Hyderabad, India) as well as IODE national coordinator for oceanographic data management was awarded twice in 2009-2010 for his outstanding performance.
In 2009 Mr Rao received the Certificate of Merit-2009 instituted by the Ministry of Earth Sciences(MoES), Government of India, in the field of Ocean Science for his significant contributions in ocean data and information management. He received this award during the MoES Foundation Day celebrations held at Vignan Bhavan, New Delhi on July 27, 2009.
In 2010 he received the National Geospatial Award-2010 instituted by the Indian Society of Remote Sensing (ISRS) for his significant contributions in the field of applications of geospatial technology for ocean data management. (Photo: Mr. E. Pattabhi Rama Rao receiving the Indian National Geospatial Award 2010 from Dr. R. R. Navalgund, President, ISRS & Director, Space Applications Centre, ISRO during the inaugural session of ISRS Annual Convention and National Symposium on 01st December 2010 held at Lonavala, Pune, India).
The first revision of the GTSPP Real-Time Quality Control Manual is now available as IOC Manuals and Guides No. 22 Rev.
The purpose of this Manual is to set standards for quality control of real-time data and to describe exactly the screening process that is employed. By reading this document, users may assess the applicability of the procedures to their requirements and thereby judge whether they need do further work before using the data.
This Manual has been produced within the context of the Global Temperature-Salinity Profile Programme (GTSPP). Because the work of assuring the quality of data handled by the Programme is shared amongst data centres, it is important to have both consistent and well documented procedures. This Manual describes the means by which data quality is assessed and the actions taken as a result of the procedures.
The programme of the OceanTeacher Academy for 2011 is now available. In 2011 we will organize (at least) 7 training courses: 3 on data management, 3 on information management and 1 that addresses both communities.
The list of courses is as follows:
Data Management: Marine GIS
Information Management: Disaster Planning and Recovery
Information Management: Grant writing, Professional writing
Data Management: Basic data management
Data Management: Data management for young scientists
General course: Outreach and Communication Tools
Information Management: Data Curation for Information Professionals and in-depth digitization
In addition some courses will be organized in various regions, within the framework of ODIN projects.
The Government of Panama designated Ms Yolanda Irene López (National Library of Medicine, University of Panama) as IODE national coordinator for marine information management. Since 2008 Ms López has collaborated in the OceanDocs project of IODE. More information on Ms López can be found in OceanExpert here
Richard Pepe, Editor-in-Chief of the Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) - 
New Zealand designated Mr Kevin Macka as the IODE National Coordinator for Oceanographic Data Management and IODE National Coordinator for Marine Information Management. Mr Mackay is Marine Data Manager at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and its also a member of the management team of NIWA's Environmental Information Centre. More information on Mr Mackay can be found 
Shri E. Pattabhi Rama Rao, Scientist-D and Head Data and information Management Group (DMG) at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) (Hyderabad, India) as well as IODE national coordinator for oceanographic data management was awarded twice in 2009-2010 for his outstanding performance. 
The programme of the OceanTeacher Academy for 2011 is now available. In 2011 we will organize (at least) 7 training courses: 3 on data management, 3 on information management and 1 that addresses both communities.
The Government of Panama designated Ms Yolanda Irene López (National Library of Medicine, University of Panama) as IODE national coordinator for marine information management. Since 2008 Ms López has collaborated in the OceanDocs project of IODE. More information on Ms López can be found in OceanExpert