Invitation to participate into a "GMT Advisory Group" meeting

Announcements
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Here is the agenda and notes from yesterday’s GMT Advisory Group meeting:

GMT Advisory Meeting Agenda

April 16, 2026

  1. Update on transfer of GMT Forum and Remote Datasets to EarthScope/AWS infrastructure

    1. The GMT have been copied to an AWS S3 bucket which is configured with Cloudfront as an https server accessible here: https://d3ei3ebu1iflov.cloudfront.net/gmt-data

      1. How can this data be updated (Federico)? Can the repository https://github.com/GenericMappingTools/gmtserver-admin be used?

      2. There is the SWOT gravity data (https://topex.ucsd.edu/pub/global_grav_1min_SWOT/). Should we replace the old gravity data (https://www.generic-mapping-tools.org/remote-datasets/earth-faa.html) or add a new dataset?

        1. (Joachim) We should review the organization of the files to make sure that they are consistent to the old FTP holdings such that GMT can find what it’s looking for.

        2. (Solar) Been making an effort to do just that. The relative paths are the same.

    2. The gmt releases that are available through the GMT software mirrors are also available from the same website along with the datasets: https://d3ei3ebu1iflov.cloudfront.net/gmt/

      1. Do we want to continue supporting the legacy mirrors?

        1. (Joaquim) We don’t use that mode for many years since GitHub has become the base of development. Quietly archiving a copy is fine, but not something we advertise.

        2. (Solar) noticed that latest 6.6 release is not copied there, so a pretty good clue that this is not needed.

        3. (Christian) What of pushing a copy to Zenodo for another backup? GitHub can be set up to submit automatically.

        4. (Joachim) We have had recent 6.x releases going to Zenodo already.

        5. (Frederico) This was copied manually for v6.6 to Zenodo.

    3. We need to decide what to call the earthscope hosted gmt server.
      Maybe something like gmt-data.earthscope.org? Or something related to its geographic location (F)?

      1. See Joachim’s note on holding the 6.7 release below…

      2. There is an issue regarding the mirrors finding the default server.

    4. EarthScope has subscribed to a Discourse Business plan to support the GMT Forum.

      1. Need to work through the process of migrating the forum to from gmtserver to the Discourse hosted service

  2. Garrett is working on a no-cost extension for the supplemental funding to allow Earthscope Engagement to host a PyGMT workshop.

  3. How does the plan to create a new release this month look?

    1. I (Federico) would like to include the perspective text feature (https://github.com/GenericMappingTools/gmt/issues/8907). I might need some help.

  4. Ideas for attracting and supporting contributors

    1. Inclusion of Asian community

      1. May meeting being schedule to support Asian participants

    2. Somehow supporting AI access to assist contributors?

    3. Documentation for GMT: In general, it’s pretty good, but it can be hard to use. AI can help, but the core docs could use some cleanup.

    4. Expanding Advisory group?

      1. Seeking broader ideas and concerns for inspiration

      2. Avoid being a ‘closed shop’

      3. How big is too big for effective management

    5. (Christian) Come up with Guidelines for GMT Innovation, how to get support.

      1. Come up with a generic roadmap for GMT.

      2. GEBCO Cookbook for the hydrographic community: https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/socd/lsa/GEBCO_Cookbook/documents/CookBook_20191031.pdf – a possible source of funding to keep their doc up to date and supporting GMT.

  5. Other ideas?

    1. Could EarthScope take on managing GMT’s social media (Federico)?

      1. Instagram currently. – advertise more here - contact Federico.

      2. EarthScope has other Social Media contacts.

    2. Claude ‘group signature’ for the GMT community? (Joachim)

      1. Weekly credit. 5 hour wait times.

      2. https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11049762-choosing-a-claude-plan

      3. https://support.claude.com/en/articles/9266767-what-is-the-team-plan

      4. Let’s raise this at the next meeting. Who to include. EarthScope can bill this to Other line item in Supplemental.

(Joachim) Regarding the future 6.7 version, I think it better hold off till gmt-data.earthscope.org is added, and made the default site instead of oceania, inside the GMT code.

List of participants

  • Christian Ferreira

  • Federico Esteban

  • Joaquim Luis

  • Yvonne Fröhlich

  • Garrett Apuzen-Ito

  • Rob Casey

  • Solar Smith

  • Remko Scharroo

  • David Caress

ACTION ITEMS:

  1. Look into regularizing the process of posting minor releases of GMT to Zenodo.

  2. Advertise the GMT Datasets S3 browser site to the GMT Forum.

  3. Work out the structure of GMT associated domains within the earthscope.org umbrella (we’ll talk to Dave Mencin)

  4. Reach out to the GMT community this year about level of interest in attending a GMT Summit at EGU in 2027.

  5. Follow up with Engagement regarding social media outreach for GMT.

  6. This group come up with AI LLM brands that they want evaluated for GMT team development.

Dataset versioning