The National Science Foundation's Ocean Observatories Initiative will launch a new era of scientific discovery by enabling real-time interaction with the Ocean from anywhere on Earth. An innovative network of widely distributed robotic instruments, undersea cables, and scientific moorings will span the Western Hemisphere and will be directly connected to the Internet. Construction is slated to begin in 2010-2011. John Delaney is Principal Investigator and Director of the Regional Scale Nodes Program within the Ocean Observatories Initiative.