LNO/IM Collaboration and Communication Work Group

1. LNO/IM Collaboration and Communication Work Group Looking for ways to enhance collaboration between LTER Information Managers (IMs) and the LTER Network Office (LNO)’ staff

2. LNO/IM Collaboration and Communication Work Group Motivation and Mission Challenges Ideas Goals Products History

3. LNO/IM Collaboration • Needs from both groups that have to be met by their counterpart and are not being accomplished • IM and LNO’s developers different perspective about the LTER sites’ problems and their solutions. • LTER IM community have heterogeneous academic backgrounds and preparations • Collaboration between members of different disciplines has been acknowledged to need an understanding the process involved in that collaboration.(*) Motivation and Mission (*) McOwiti O. Thomas. 2007. Unique LNO virtual training launches in cyberspace. The LTER Network News 20(1):1,3

4. LNO/IM Collaboration • Find possible ways to structure collaborations • Become aware of the process we follow as we collaborate Motivation and Mission

5. LNO/IM Collaboration • There is a mismatch ofallocation of time to do Network level projects and commitments (goals) between both communities • IM time not allocated for Network projects at site translate to: • extra personal time put into IM Network projects OR • little or no participation of site in IM Network projects • Sites are shorthanded for Network level projects needing more personnel staff Challenges (Time and Personnel)

6. LNO/IM Collaboration • LNO needs initiatives from the sites to get information or scientific-based solutions • E.g., a protocol to define custom units at a network level; IM annual meetings are not a good venue • LNO awaits for next step definitions or actions' from the IMs • E.g., Ontology/Vocabulary group next step • IMs individuals or groups await for certain promisedLNO products • E.g., Web forms to populate metadata • LNO uncertainty to say if project can be completed Challenges (Needs for info and products)

7. LNO/IM Collaboration • Communication of projects and needs between two communities is sometimes inefficient • E.g., • an IM idea: “LNO should create a tracking database of the actions, status and priority assigned to the IM site–related projects with open tickets that have to be responded to” • in the LNO’s very own PASTA (Provenance Aware Synthetic Tracking Architecture)... ... “project tasks are tracked in an open source, web-based application called dotProject. Our version resides at http://fire.lternet.edu/dotproject “ Challenges (Communication)

8. LNO/IM Collaboration • IMExec should have the initiative to bring up special network science related consultation E.g., a protocol to define custom units at a network level Ideas

9. LNO/IM Collaboration • Proposed LNO’s project affecting the IM community should go through a consulting process with the IM community: • Recruit IM with necessary skills to collaborate in the development of specs and design process • Assign a moderator for project • Move forward only those projects that go through this collaboration process • Maintain motivation by separating project in stages Ideas

10. LNO/IM Collaboration • Proposed LNO’s project affecting the IM community should go through a consulting process with the IM community (continues): • Look for ways to compensate sites for the time their IMs spend in Network-related projects with money to get more personnel, rewards, or else... • Involve IMs in the definition of LNO’s goals and projects • Open channels for people to collaborate • e.g. UTF of the Unit work group Ideas

11. LNO/IM Collaboration • LNO should Implement a timeline module • Use API web services to enhance the inefficient way we use web forms • e.g,. to access NIS databases Ideas

12. LNO/IM Collaboration • Become aware of the IM role within the LTER community: • IM are users • IM are designers and developers at their site • IM implement projects Metadata standard elements. • IM know the technology • IM are aware of their site’s scientific needs • SO make them co-designers of the network-wise products • e.g., EML, TRENDS Ideas

13. LNO/IM Collaboration • Recruit a database manager person at the LNO that: • will take care of the NIS databases (Climdb, SiteDB. ...) • develop online query capabilities to pull out subsets of data • Allow network-projects’ working groups of IM to visit the LNO and get some products done Ideas

14. LNO/IM Collaboration • Make Site Bytes a venue to get list of potential Network-level projects • Use surveys to show what IM do at their site to the LNO and see that: • Sites’ IM resources for the LNO Projects • LNO staff  resources for the sites IM Ideas

15. LNO/IM Collaboration • Create a structured mechanism for collaborations such that: • IMs community actively participate in the sites’ information management activities related decisions made by the LNO • LNO staff receive the feedback they need from the IMs community in a timely manner • both communities work together in creating network-level science-facilitating projects • collaborations between LNO and IMC coordinate in an appropriate, effective way with the activities of the Network Information System Advisory Committee (NISAC) Goals

16. LNO/IM Collaboration • effective mechanism to facilitate the interaction between the IM and the LNO personnel • in the LNO’s projects designing process • providing feedback to LNO with in a timely manner • list of possible IM-LNO projects in the near future to facilitate the information management activities at the sites and at the Network level, and • general description of the different processes we have observed when this collaboration has taken place along with its outcome. Products

17. LNO/IM Collaboration Subsidiary Products: a list of past and present (up to August 2007) IM-LNO collaborations Products

18. LNO/IM Collaboration History

19. LNO/IM Collaboration History

20. LNO/IM Collaboration History

21. LNO/IM Collaboration History