The multi-organizational content of ECHO provides a valuable new service to a growing number of Earth science applications and interdisciplinary research efforts. ECHO streamlines access to digital data and materials and brokers orders and other services from Clients to Data Partners. ECHO provides tracking services for both the Provider and the Client. The goals for ECHO are listed here.

The History of ECHO
The initial charter and Plan development of the project began in June of 1998 as the Independent Information Management System (IIMS). The goal was to provide a tool that would allow access and searching of Earth Science Metadata independent of the ECS. The charter, goals, and requirements have changed since 1998 based on input from the Earth science data community and changes in the how Earth science data is currently handled. The name has changed from IIMS to ECHO to reflect what the system is - a clearinghouse of Earth science Metadata under the EOS Program.

ECHO Organizations
The EOS Clearing House (ECHO) is a metadata clearinghouse and order broker being built by NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). The ECHO development team is comprised of software engineers, database and QA specialists from Raytheon, Global Science & Technology Corporation (GST), and Vangent. The ECHO Operations group consists of Raytheon and GST team members.

The ECHO External Test Group is provided by SGT, Inc. The ECHO External Test team consists of software engineers that are responsible for functional and end-to-end testing of each ECHO version prior to implementation into the ECHO Operational Environment.

Requirements and recommended functionality is received through feedback from the science community. This feedback is reviewed and prioritized by the ECHO Technical Committee (ETC) and the ECHO Project Advisory Group (EPAG). ETC and EPAG participate in requirements and design reviews for each software version.