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As standards in best practices in data quality assurance and quality control evolve, methods for discovery and transport of information relating to these practices must also be developed. An observation's history, from sensor descriptions, processing methods, parameters and quality control tests to data quality flags and sensor alert flags, must be accessible through standards-based web services to enable machine-to-machine interoperability. This capability enables a common understanding and thus an underlying trust in the expanding world of ocean observing systems. For example, a coastal observatory conducts several tests to evaluate and improve the quality of in situ time series data (e.g. velocity) and then generate an oceanic property (e.g. wave height). Using content-rich webenabled services, a data aggregation center will be able to determine which tests were conducted, interpret data quality flags and provide value added services, such as comparing the parameter with those from near-by observations. These additional processing steps may also be documented and sent along with the data to other participating ocean observing systems throughout the world. By utilizing standards-based protocol (Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) frameworks) and welldefined community adopted QA/QC (Quality Assurance/Quality Control) tests and best-practices (Quality Assurance in Real-Time Oceanographic Data -QARTOD), information about the system provenance, sensor and data processing history needn't be lost.Are data providers ready, willing and able to describe sensors and processing history? And can we transport the information using a framework that offers semantic and syntactic interoperability? The group developing this community white paper has demonstrated that it can be and is being done. A project called Q2O, QARTOD to OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium), bridges the QARTOD community with the OGC community to demonstrate and document best practices in the implementation of QA/QC within the OGC Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) framework. This paper describes this demonstration project and documents the existence of parallel related efforts. With adequate funding to enable the strengthening and broadening of these communities, a solid foundation for ocean observing systems will be built with the assurance that best-practices of data quality are communicated in a meaningful way.

focus to leverage long term sustained funding. The next 10 years will be "make or break" for many ocean systems. The decadal challenge is to develop the governance and cooperative mechanisms to harness emerging information technology to deliver on the goal of generating the information and knowledge required to sustain oceans into the future.

The FP7 funded TROPOS project approach is to develop a modular multi-use platform for use in deep waters, with a focus on the Mediterranean, tropical and sub-tropical regions. In this paper, three different platforms configurations, - which have been designed to show the synergies and compatibilities among the platform uses of Transport, Energy, Aquaculture and Leisure - are presented

Sustained ocean observations are crucial to understand both natural processes occurring in the ocean and human influence on the marine ecosystems. The information they provide increases our understanding and is therefore beneficial to the society as a whole because it contributes to a more efficient use and protection of the marine environment, upon which human livelihood depends. In addition the oceans, which occupy 73% of the planet surface and host 93% of the biosphere, play a massive role in controlling the climate. Eulerian or fixed-point observatories are an essential component of the global ocean observing system as they provide several unique features that cannot be found in other systems and are therefore complementary to them. In addition they provide a unique opportunity for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary work, combining physical, chemical and biological observations on several time scales. The fixed-point open ocean observatory network (FixO3) integrates the 23 European open ocean fixed-point observatories in the Atlantic Ocean and in the Mediterranean Sea. The program also seeks to improve access to key installations and the knowledge they provide for the wider community, from scientists, to businesses, to civil society. This paper summarises the rationale behind open ocean observatories monitoring the essential ocean variables. It also provides an estimate of the costs to operate a typical fixed-point observatory such as those included in the FixO3 network. Finally an assessment of the type of data and services provided by ocean observations and their value to society is also given.