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see also Online Resource Development
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Sharing | Knowledge Mapping
The Biosphere project
is based on collaboration. The Test Bed area will expand to offer
links to and discussion of projects to share, search, retrieve,
and organize environmental information.
Do have or know about
a project or software tool that you would like others to see and
discuss? Perhaps it's at an earlier stage and you would like to
brainstorm with other researchers/developers about it. It doesn't
have to be Open Source. Link
it here and we will (after minor editorial oversight) add
it to the site. Please contact
us with any questions.
Tools
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New:
Two GIS/biodiversity projects; experimental DL
environmental
search engine
Biodiversity
WorldMap Project
Software tools for exploring geographical patterns in diversity,
rarity and conservation priorities from large biological datasets.
A research project of the London Natural History Museum's
Biogeography & Conservation Lab. Demo
software available for download. Customizable solutions
can be developed for collaboration with natural resource managers,
conservation planners and biodiversity specialists and others
who:
- have
large and representative data sets for many areas to explore
- have
analytical innovations to develop
- have
funds for potential development work and joint enterprises.
The
Species Biodiversity Workshop
A data visualization project involving the University of Kansas
and the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) that integrates
data access, analysis and visualization using CGI Perl scripts
in a frame-based web application to allow researchers to perform
a variety of functions on biodiversity data.
>>
Discuss either or both of the projects above.
Knowledgescapes
Knowledgescapes queries environmentally related documents
in the Berkeley Digital Library collection, and feeds user
search behavior back into its own relevance rankings for particular
kinds of queries, thus "leveraging the experience of
previous users to help you find the information you are looking
for efficiently." This is a brand new experiment looking
for feedback. Details on the project here.
>>
Discuss
the Knowledgescapes
project.
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Post
datasets, resources and comments
Please post links to your environmental and biodiverity datasets,
tools, and suggested resources here. Tools do not have to be open
source, just useful! We are expanding the site and want it to become
as inclusive as possible.
Species
Analyst
From the University of Kansas: "A set of tools that provide
seamless simultaneous access to multiple biological collection databases
from your web browser. You will need a newer version web browser
for the Species Analyst to operate properly."
SourceForge
VA Linux started
this site at the beginning of the year to offer high-end resources
to support complex open source software projects ("a CVS repository,
mailing lists, bug tracking, message forums, task management software,
web site hosting, permanent file archival, full backups, and total
web-based administration"). They now host over 4000 projects.
VA Linux
benefits from this, among other reasons, because many of those projects
will expand Linux's functionality and credibility. If there are
major tools to be developed in environmental informatics, this might
be a place to do it.
Other
Ideas and Resources
Gnutella
This free tool, part of the recent trend including the infamous
Napster, is controversial because of copyright issues, and so should
be used with caution, but it represents a trend that embodies
significant opportunities for scientific file sharing.
One positive assessment of these technologies comes from Webreview.
From the Gnutella FAQ:
Gnutella
is a tool for general peer-to-peer file-sharing. It can be used
to share spreadsheets, source code, design documents, really any
file on your computer. Yes, it is possible to exchange [copyrighted]
files. This is entirely the choice of the people sharing them.
That is, after all, the beauty of freedom of choice. We do not
condone or endorse the exchange and transfer of such files, and
would like to point out that doing so is entirely at your own
risk.
Here's an alternative
Gnutella
FAQ.
Some have already
suggested using
Napster, Gnutella's predecessor, to share genome information.
WikiWikiClones
This enjoyably odd hypertext collaboration system appears to have
emerged from the Pattern
Language software engineer community. It sounds especially useful
for a team working together to create documentation. Anyone can
edit any page within the document web, and there are functions in
place to encourage people to do things like collaboratively manage
and define new concepts. Practitioners say that the ability to overwrite
others text works
just fine.
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