Building Blocks for EarthCube
	EarthCube building blocks are components of an overarching architecture designed to support objectives of EarthCube identified by National Science Foundation (Jacobs, 2012; Killeen, 2012), as well as those highlighted in the European Commission report Riding the Wave; http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/e-infrastructure/docs/hlg-sdi-report.pdf) 

Data publication and access: developing new technologies to enable individuals and large data centers to publish data, as well as enabling access through semantic technologies. These technologies must be coupled with a reward system to encourage data sharing.
Collection: develop community endorsed  simple metadata requirements for data providers to facilitate access to both curated as well non curated data
Diversity: provide capabilities to access and discover heterogeneous resources
Interoperability: provide capabilities (semantic as well as syntactic ) to understand the content of databases, as well as support discovery of resources beyond keyword searches 
Trust: provide innovative algorithms to enhance users trust of data they are unfamiliar with, as well as management of resources to enhance trust in the source of the data
Security: New technologies to enhance data integrity, as well as capabilities to detect data biased by a group or individual
Education and training: New capabilities to generate interest in geoscience through training of data scientists and librarians, as well as providing capabilities to bring information to a class room setting
Usability: Provide new technologies to enable non-specialists to use data, as well as scientists to work with unfamiliar data
Preservation and Sustainability: Develop capabilities to preserve current data, as well as legacy data
Commercial exploitation: Utilize commercial developments to enable revenue generation for sustainability of resources

To meet such objectives, synergy between science and informatics is required to develop a more robust understanding of the earth as a system of systems. Interaction of these systems is recorded in both geological and biological data, yet the capability to integrate across disciplines is hampered by diverse social and technological approaches to research and communication. A significant challenge that must be met in order to promote such an understanding encompasses the integrated development of social, engineering and science based infrastructures. 

Jacobs, C., 2012, EarthCube: Developing a Framework to Create and Manage Knowledge in the Geosciences, Earth Observation, Technology, http://www.earthzine.org/2012/02/01/earthcube-developing-a-framework-to-create-and-manage-knowledge-in-the-geosciences/, 

Killeen, T., 2012, Data Citation in the Geosciences, http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2012/nsf12058/nsf12058.jsp