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h3. What is OpenEarth?
OpenEarth is a free and open source initiative to deal with [Data], [Models] and [Tools] in marine & coastal engineering projects. In current practice, research, consultancy and construction projects commonly spend a significant part of their budget to setup some basic infrastructure for data and knowledge management. Most of these efforts disappear again once the project is finished. As an alternative to these ad-hoc approaches, OpenEarth aims for a more continuous approach to data & knowledge management. It provides a platform to archive, host and disseminate high quality data, state-of-the-art model systems and well-tested tools for practical analysis. Through this project-superseding approach, marine & coastal engineers and scientists can learn from experiences in previous projects and each other. This may lead to considerable efficiency gains, both in terms of budget and time.

Within the OpenEarth community two types of users can be distinguished: 1) [#OpenEarth developers] and 2) [#OpenEarth end-users]. 

h3. OpenEarth developers
OpenEarth developers participate actively in the dissemination of new datasets and model systems and the development & improvement of all kinds of handy tools. If you wanna be an OpenEarth developer, please have a look at the [Getting started] section.

h3. OpenEarth end-users
OpenEarth end-users are particularly interested in using data, models and tools that have become available through OpenEarth for project purposes. For these users easily installable software packages as well as user manuals and tutorials have been made available in the [OpenEarth Product Suite].

h3. Background information
More background information on OpenEarth can be found [here|Background information].

h3. Acknowledgements
OpenEarth is, amongst others, supported by the concerted effort of professionals from [Deltares|http://www.deltares.nl] (formerly [Delft Hydraulics|http://www.wldelft.nl]), [Delft University of Technology|http://www.tudelft.nl]'s [Hydraulic Engineering|http://www.waterbouw.tudelft.nl] and [Environmental Fluid Mechanics |http://www.fluidmechanics.tudelft.nl] sections, [Arcadis-Alkyon|http://www.alkyon.nl] and [UNESCO-IHE|http://www.unesco-ihe.org]. It is currently the central platform for data and knowledge management in the research programmes [Delft Cluster - Northsea and Coast|http://www.delftcluster.nl/], [Building with Nature|http://www.ecoshape.nl/] and [MICORE|http://www.micore.eu].

h3. [News|Open Earth News]

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| {lozenge:icon=!lozenges.png!|title=Join OpenEarth / getting started|link=Getting started|color=green|width=250px}Free data & tools{lozenge} |

h3. OpenEarth Services

|| Data ||
| {lozenge:icon=!lozenges.png!|title=Google Earth gallery|link=KML Screenshots|color=green|width=250px}data visualisations in [Google Earth ^TM^|http://earth.google.com]{lozenge} |
| {lozenge:icon=!lozenges.png!|title=Data|link=Data|color=green|width=250px}OpenEarths approach to data{lozenge} |
|| Models ||
| {lozenge:icon=!lozenges.png!|title=Models|link=Models|color=green|width=250px}OpenEarths approach to models{lozenge} |
|| Tools ||
| {lozenge:icon=!lozenges.png!|title=Tools|link=Tools|color=green|width=250px}OpenEarths approach to tools{lozenge} |
|| Tutorials ||
| {lozenge:icon=!lozenges.png!|title=Tutorials|link=OpenEarth tutorials|color=green|width=250px}OpenEarths tutorials{lozenge} |

h3. Links

|| Knowledge ||
| {lozenge:icon=!lozenges.png!|title=Knowledge|link=Knowledge|color=green|width=250px}OpenEarths approach to knowledge{lozenge} |
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  h6. Navigate space
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