Successful international collaboration depends upon voluntary a dherence to a common vision of obligations and expectations, which minimizes the intrusion of these factors. Many people have freely contributed ideas to development of this concept and the associated graphic. This material may be used freely and without restriction, subject only to a request to honor the spirit in which it is presented. A well-developed example is the system for daily weather prediction. For credibility, each trunk must be a responsibility of the public sector, with open scrutiny and assessment of data and synthesized products by the international scientific community.
Branches imply further distribution or processing.
Where the science is not yet mature, investment in system development should be particularly responsive to research applications. Individual roots are potential candidates for data buys from private companies, provided the public sector acquires all rights to further distribution and use of the data and government-sponsored derived products. Where a root serves more than one trunk, close liaison between those trunks is essential. Thus the whole may actually resemble a Banyan tree. The incentive to participate in collaborative international science based observing programmes is the sharing of information.