The past twenty years have seen a revolutionary growth in the way we monitor seismic hazard: analog seismographs were replaced by digital instruments that are sensitive over a wide frequency band; the digitization made it possible to group instruments in local, often telemetered networks with centralized archiving of digital waveform data.

Earth does not know about national borders, and seismologists have spearheaded efforts to share their data.  The growth of the Internet has made it possible, in principle, to link data centers all over the world. In fact, for some networks, such linkages have already been established, and a mature system of data management has grown in such large data centers as ORFEUS (Europe), Jamstec (Japan) and IRIS/DMC (US).

This workshop is a major attempt to disseminate the experience and expertise in seismological data management. It is directed at network managers, both in developed and in developing countries. We shall provide training in the application of advanced data base management systems, educate participants on the scientific developments that form the basis of modern seismometry, and give a short introduction to modern methods of analysis possible with the current advanced instrumentation and databases. Participants are encouraged to bring complete metadata and response information from their network from which they will be able to build dataless SEED volumes.  Furthermore, participants will be encouraged to bring their own waveform data to be used in the practical exercises. We expect participants to come away from the workshop with all the necessary knowledge to set up and maintain their own database and to link their network to the growing global network for data access.

In order to keep the workshop efficient, we will only admit a limited number of participants. As we expect a wide interest, the organizers will make a selection of the applicants from the preliminary registrations. In this selection, we will mainly consider seismic network operators or prospective network operators and, if necessary, avoid multiple participation from one institute. We intend to inform each person that has sent a preliminary registration as soon as possible on the possibility to participate.

The focus of this workshop will be networks from the Caribbean, Central American and South American countries.  Priority will be given to applications from seismic network operators from this geographical area.

Information about transportation, currency, food, weather, maps and contacts can be found on the Workshop Support Page.

Presentations are available in PowerPoint or Web formats. A free PowerPoint Viewer is available from Microsoft. Some Word files are available in Adobe Acrobat format.

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