The first ICSU WDS Conference - Global Data for Global Science – was successfully held at Kyoto University in September 2011, under collaboration with CODATA and the Integrated Risk and Disaster Research (IRDR) of ICSU. It was the first international meeting in order to construct a smooth human network with advanced interconnections between data-management components for disciplinary and multidisciplinary applications in global scale.

The WDS policy of open and full access to data will benefit the international scientific community and ultimately society at large. The concepts of data publication and data citation should be adopted and promoted by the WDS in order to facilitate the release of data, with proper recognition of providers, including the polar community. The WDS would take the necessary steps to archive the IPY data and work with the PIC to preserve, curate, and add value to data in the PIC cloud in order to preserve the legacy of data of the IPY (WDS-SC, 2009).