The World Data Centre (WDC) system was created to archive and distribute data collected from the observational programmes of the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year by the International Council of Science (ICSU). The WDCs were funded and maintained by their host countries on behalf of the international science community. Originally established in the United States, Europe, Soviet Union, and Japan, the WDC system expanded to other countries and to new scientific disciplines. The WDC system included up to 52 Centres in 12 countries. All data held in WDCs were available for the cost of copying and sending the requested information. At the end of 2008, following the ICSU General Assembly in Maputo (Mozambique), the World Data Centres were reformed and a new ICSU World Data System (WDS) established in 2009 building on the 50-year legacy of the ICSU World Data Centre system (WDC) and the ICSU Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical data-analysis Services.
Famous quotes containing the words world, data and/or center:
“But ice-crunching and loud gum-chewing, together with drumming on tables, and whistling the same tune seventy times in succession, because they indicate an indifference on the part of the perpetrator to the rest of the world in general, are not only registered on the delicate surfaces of the brain but eat little holes in it until it finally collapses or blows up.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“Mental health data from the 1950’s on middle-aged women showed them to be a particularly distressed group, vulnerable to depression and feelings of uselessness. This isn’t surprising. If society tells you that your main role is to be attractive to men and you are getting crow’s feet, and to be a mother to children and yours are leaving home, no wonder you are distressed.”
—Grace Baruch (20th century)
“Death is someone you see very clearly with eyes in the center of your heart: eyes that see not by reacting to light, but by reacting to a kind of a chill from within the marrow of your own life.”
—Thomas Merton (1915–1968)