Site Purpose

This web site emphasizes application of state-of-the-art research and best practices for collecting, managing, analyzing, visualizing, and communicating environmental data and information.

With an undergraduate natural science degree and a Ph.D. emphasizing the human side of computer information systems, I have seen many examples of miscommunications between scientists and information technology experts. For example, not many IT personnel would design a database or other information system that would handle the various nuances of dissolved oxygen measurement techniques, or even know that which one was used can be important. I have seen spreadsheets created by scientists for recording/analyzing data that were organized in manner that a talented IT person would quickly recognize as flawed because the design made it unnecessarily difficult to analyze the data.

A goal for this web site is to help bridge the gap between scientists generating data and IT professionals skilled in data management. Scientists will find examples and guidance for using techniques that will help them better manage the data. IT personnel will similarly find examples that illustrate and explain some of the complexities of scientific data that are not common to business-oriented IT systems.