UC3
The Good & Bad: Web Application versus Add-in
If you missed it, I recently posted about the future direction of the DCXL project. I boiled it down to the question of Add-in versus web application. The community has offered feedback, and some major themes that have emerged, which I summarize below. But first, a reminder of the goods and bads of our two […]
Google Refine: An Interesting Take on Data Organization
A powerful tool for working with messy data. This is the tag line for Google Refine, a web-based application that can be used to manipulate and clean up data sets. The history of Google Refine is that Google acquired Freebase Gridworks (originally developed by Metaweb Technologies, Inc.) back in 2010. They re-branded the application as […]
Help Wanted: Add-in versus Web Application?
I recently updated this site with a page listing the DCXL Requirements. These five requirements are the basic feature set and capabilities we would like have for the Excel Add-in that is to be developed in the course of the project. The engineering team at Microsoft Research checked out our requirements and had a (rather […]
Academic Libraries: Under-Used & Under-Appreciated
I’m guilty. I often admit this when I meet librarians at conferences and workshops – I’m guilty of never using my librarians as a resource in my 13 years of higher ed, spread across seven academic institutions. At the very impressive MBL-WHOI Library in Woods Hole MA, there are quite a few friendly librarians that […]
What Scientists Want: Requirements Part 3
I’m in the process of posting the requirements we are submitting for the DCXL add-in, in four parts. “Requirements” are the capabilities we want the proposed add-in to have, based on discussions with scientists and other stakeholders. For more information, read my two previous posts (here and here) and check out the new Requirements page for more details about […]
What Scientists Want: Requirements Part 2
I’m in the process of posting the requirements we are submitting for the DCXL add-in. These are the capabilities we want the proposed add-in to have, based on discussions with scientists and other stakeholders. For more information, read my previous post and check out the new Requirements page for more details about each of the proposed the […]
What Scientists Want: Requirements Part 1
Just before the holidays, I managed to finish the first version of the DCXL requirements. These requirements are the set of Excel capabilities that scientists would like to help them manage, share, and archive their data. I created these requirements based on many conversations with scientists, librarians, and information specialists, and they reflect the communities […]
The NeverEnding Task: Organizing Files
In my speaking with scientists about data management, I often talk about how they organize their work files on their computers. Asking someone about this is a deeply personal question- often people are highly defensive of their system, while simultaneously being frustrated with the structure. Organizing files on your computer might sometimes feel like the […]
Ontologies and Data
Ontologies is one of those words I hear people toss about in conversations about computing, programming, and development. I usually nod and smile, pretending I know exactly what the word means, and how it relates to scientific data. It took some vigorous Google searching and a great discussion with M. Schildhauer of NCEAS before I can […]
NSF Panel Review of Data Management Plans
With the clarity of the New Year, I realized I broke a promise to you DCXL readers… in my post on data policies, I stated that my next post would be about the current state of data management plan evaluation on NSF panels. Although it is a bit late, here’s that post. My information is […]