Welcome to a robust issue of the Spring 2006 DataBits’!!! We had many submittals this issue and the articles really show the diversity of this group. We hope you have as much fun reading this issue as we did putting it together. As many of the LTER sites have EML documents being generated, the focus of the IM community has shifted from generating EML to working with EML. There is a series of four articles in this issue of DataBits’ that explore multiple approaches with differing timeframes that IM’s are developing that will lead to better data discovery within EML. TRENDS also stops by to give an update on their progress. As data mangers, we often over-look some of the ways that we can outreach to our surrounding communities, and Chris Gardner from McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER provides a great avenue with the Children’s Book Series. A pair of editorials consider MySQL and PostgreSQL as well as the usual collection of informative articles, good reads, and news bits. So sit back, grab a cup of coffee, and enjoy this issue of Databits.
DataBits continues as a semi-annual electronic publication of the Long Term Ecological Research Network. It is designed to provide a timely, online resource for research information managers and to incorporate rotating co-editorship. Availability is through web browsing as well as hardcopy output. LTER mail list IMplus will receive DataBits publication notification. Others may subscribe by sending email to majordomo@lternet.edu with two lines “subscribe databits” and “end” as the message body. To communicate suggestions, articles, and/or interest in co-editing, send email to databits-ed@lternet.edu.
—– Co-editors: Brian Riordan (BNZ), Steve Bauer (CDR)
Table of Contents
| Feature Articles | ||
| About this Issue | 2 | |
| Mining and Integrating Data from ClimDB and USGS using the GCE Data Toolbox | Wade Sheldon | 2 |
| File Sharing Options: Elements of a Collaborative Infrastructure | Mason Kortz | 5 |
| The LTER Children’s Book Series – an Opportunity for IM Outreach | Chris Gardner | 6 |
| Putting EML to Work: The PTAH Project | John Porter | 7 |
| International Collaboration on EML-Based Applications | Chi-Wen Hsiao | 8 |
| Mobile GIS Technology: Trying it Out | Tom Kurkowski | 8 |
| Trends in Long-Term Ecological Data: a collaborative synthesis project introduction and update | Christine Laney & Debra Peters | 10 |
| Four Part Semantic Series | ||
| Multiple Approaches to Semantic Issues: Vocabularies, Dictionaries, and Ontologies | Karen Baker, Deana Pennington, John Porter | 12 |
| Improving Data Queries through use of a Controlled Vocabulary | John Porter | 13 |
| Creating Information Infrastructure through Community Dictionary Processes | Karen Baker, Lynn Yarmey, Shaun Haber, Florence Millerand, Mark Servilla | 14 |
| Navigating Semantic Approaches: From Keyworkds to Ontologies | Deana Pennington | 16 |
| Editorials | ||
| What does PostfreSQL, the world’s most advanced open source database, offer beyond the standard of an object-relational database management system? | Sabine Grabner | 19 |
| Experiences with MySQL 5.0 as a stand alone Relational Database in Ecological Studies | Brian Riordan | 20 |
| News Bits | ||
| Unit Dictionary Working Group Update | Jonathan Walsh | 22 |
| Governance Working Group Proposes Updates to LTER Bylaws | Karen Baker | 22 |
| Good Reads | ||
| Information Management at NTL: History, Evolution, and Insight | Mark Servilla | 23 |
| Designing Interfaces | Shaun Haber | 24 |
| Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software | Shaun Haber | 24 |
| The Importance of Intertwingling | Lynn Yarmey | 24 |
| From Databases to Dataspaces: Opening up Data Processes | Karen Baker | 25 |
| Alaska’s Changing Boreal Forest | Brian Riordan | 25 |
