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Also, the size of the Global Change Data Base (over a gigabyte and growing rapidly) makes even 
Internet transmission nontrivial. But most importantly, we have occasionally had errors in exchanges 
over networks that are unacceptable when we are trying to encourage the development of a common 
reference data base. 
The data are accompanied by software that helps the user to browse through the GCDB and select 
appropriate data for use. The current version of the software is being enhanced, and should soon be 
available for IBM-compatible computers, Apple Macintosh computers, and UNIX workstations. The 
data are immediately compatible with several spatial analysis systems including GRASS-GIS (for 
UNIX from the US Army Corps of Engineers, Champaign, Illinois) and IDRISI (for DOS from 
Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts). The data have been easily imported into several more 
spatial analysis systems. 
Support Research, Education, Awareness: The previous paragraph notes that one can view 
several aspects of the global environment with the data and accompanying software. However, the 
main purposes of the data base are better served by the user using software of his/her choice for 
research, education, or public awareness. For this purpose, the data are stored in a generic format 
compatible with ingest into many software systems. 
In-house analysis at NOAA/NGDC has already begun to produce some research results (Hastings 
and Di, 1994). Several Beta testers have commented on research activities with the data. 
The Global Change Data Base has been conducted with the International Geosphere-Biosphere 
Programme, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) the United Nations Institute for 
Training and Research (UNITAR), la Sociedad de Especialistas Latinoamericanos en Percepcion 
Remota (SELPER, the Society of Latin American Remote Sensing Specialists), the Chinese Academy 
of Sciences, and other organizations to conduct training and awareness workshops in Africa and 
Latin America. One result of this activity is a training manual designed for self-instruction and 
exploration of the global environment, focusing on Africa as an example. These training materials are 
currently being translated into French by MEDIAS-France. 
Provide Feedback to Authors of Data Sets: The integration, in-house and external testing, 
and development of educational materials is done in consultation with the authors of the data, even if 
the data have already been placed into the public domain. No data set enters the GCDB without 
explicit approval of its author(s). 
We want the GCDB to be as useful to the authors of the data as to customers of the data base. The 
authors are the ultimate authorities on their work. The authors are also pioneers in attempting to 
describe the environment. However, the GCDB offers back comments on attempts to integrate and 
use these with other data, and in documenting the data for users outside the authors' own specialties. 
Our analysis of spatial and thematic representations, thematic coincidence analysis, and other research 
on the integration of the data offers back to the original authors information that might stimulate 
improvements in (and new applications of) the data. 
A Theme Upon Which Other Variations Could be Constructed? The Global Change 
Database Program is relatively modest in size. Experimenting with a new philosophy of integrating 
data is time consuming. Are there elements of the GCDB that can be useful to others in the business 
of distributing data? 
We hope so. Indeed, such variations are already being constructed, in cooperation with other 
laboratories. Just as the hardcopy publishing industry has many producers of a wide variety of