Appendix A: SOS Definitions

A packaged collection of coherent content (multiple layers, timestamps, pips). For example, the Blue Marble dataset located in its own folder, /shared/sos/media/land/blue_marble/blue_marble/.

Text that describes a Site-Custom dataset and that is located in the dataset playlist file via the description attribute. Dataset descriptions are accessed from the the iPad SOS Remote app’s Data Info button.

SOS datasets are located in the /shared/sos/media/ or /shared/sos/rt/folders on your SOS computer. With the exception of the /shared/sos/media/site-custom/ folder, datasets contained within those two folders are not editable (these are known as NOAA-managed datasets).

Each dataset is contained within its own folder. Within each dataset’s folder is a playlist.sos text file (a variation, such as playlist_audio.sos may also exist) that contains a set of attribute/value pairs that describes the dataset. The attributes in the VPLE’s Tab Views is what gets written to the playlist.sos file. The dataset’s folder also contains the content/imagery for the dataset, such as movie or image files.

For example, the Blue Marble dataset’s playlist.sos file is located on your SOS computer in the following folder, /shared/sos/media/land/blue_marble/blue_marble/ and the Blue Marble dataset’s playlist.sos file contains the following attribute/value pairs:

name = Blue Marble 
data = 4096.jpg
fps = 40
tiltx = 23.5
category = land
catalog_url = http://sos.noaa.gov/Datasets/dataset.php?id=82
majorcategory = Land

Live programs are SOS presentations that have been created by users of SOS, including scientists, educators, museum staff and student interns. They are carefully crafted presentations that use SOS datasets to tell a story and teach audiences about a specific topic such as ocean currents or extreme weather events. Included in each Live Program is an SOS presentation playlist (i.e. a collection of datasets) and a script with notes for presenters and sometimes supplementary educational materials (i.e. clicker questions and classroom lesson plans). Please see the Live Programs page in the Education section for more information.

Datasets managed by NOAA that are automatically downloaded to your SOS computer. NOAA-managed datasets are located either in the /shared/sos/media/ folder (with the exception of /shared/sos/media/site-custom/) and the /shared/sos/rt/ folder. Datasets in these folders should never be edited.

A presentation playlist is a collection of datasets grouped together in a list for a presentation. Every presentation playlist ends with the .sos extension (for example, demo.sos). Presentation playlists are typically located in the /home/sos/sosrc/ folder or the /home/sosdemo/sosrc/ on the SOS computer.

Notes for presenters that are associated with a presentation playlist or a Live Program. Presenter Notes are located at the end of a presentation playlist file and can be typed into the file directly (not recommended) or can be modified and saved to that file by using the VPLE’s Presenter Notes section in the Summary View in Presentation Mode. Presenter Notes are accessed from the the iPad SOS Remote app’s Presenter Notes button.

A Site-Custom dataset is a dataset that has been created by a site that is not part of the NOAA-managed SOS Data Catalog. Custom datasets should be placed in the /shared/sos/media/site-custom/ folder.