We are a home for Earth science data and computing professionals. Our sessions bring together the community for hands-on, interdisciplinary deep dives as we explore "Innovation to Impact" this year. Learn more about ESIP: esipfed.org
Session Description At the May 2025 Cloud Native Geospatial Conference Lowndes gave a keynote titled “Crossing the chasm: change & resilience within organizations. Diffusion of Innovation theory in practice with NOAA Fisheries Openscapes”. It was about the awesome staff at NOAA Fisheries who are responsible for the stewardship of the nation’s ocean resources and their habitat.
Claiming we’ve crossed a big scary chasm is a bold claim, especially for a big goal: data modernization and workforce development across the agency. And, while the work is still hard and ongoing, this crossing is a story to celebrate. To amplify. To point and say “this is possible”. To repeat/fork in new places. To join. To grow. For you, us, to do these things. This is work that has been building for decades, by many dedicated people inside and outside of NOAA Fisheries, with many different job titles and contributions. This chasm crossing is a big deal because new data workflows are more efficient and robust, but they take real time to adopt and take new skills. It is not easy in a large organization. But through steady work over the last three years, it’s happening. We are out of the early adopter phase and into the early majority. We shared how we planned, using the Diffusion of Innovation theory by EM Rogers (1962). And then how we operationalized, using the Openscapes Flywheel (Robinson & Lowndes 2022).
In this session we will give an abbreviated version of this talk to set the tone for others in and across institutions to share their stories of crossing the chasm.
Value to Session Participants We encourage participants to learn and turn around and amplify stories, fork them, and be inspired to tell stories of their own.
Recommended Ways to Prepare for this Session No recommendations provided
Dr. Julia Stewart Lowndes is Openscapes founding director and co-leads NASA Openscapes and NOAA Fisheries Openscapes projects. I am a marine ecologist working at the intersection of actionable science, data science, and open science. My main focus is mentoring teams to develop technical... Read More →
