	2003 LTER Information Managers Meeting
		September 22, 2003 in Seattle, WA
	"Enabling the LTER Decade of <Synthesis/>"

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2003 LTER Site Byte

LTER Site: Palmer Station

Contributor: Karen S. Baker (Aug 26, 2003)

Site Byte:

PALMER STATION INFORMATION MANAGEMENT (IM) supported the annual PalLTER January cruise and the seasonal October to March station work. The first year of the 3rd Palmer LTER proposal cycle initiated the transition to a new lead PI (Hugh Ducklow) and a new lead institution (Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary) with a reexamination of formal and informal communications. IM meeting attendance included the LTER IM Executive Committee meeting at NCEAS (Santa Barbara) and a second LTER Metadata workshop (Jun02) in Phoenix at the CAP site to continue focus on the Ecological Metadata Language and related software support products. Initial prototyping helped define redesign of the Palmer LTER metadata forms.

SOCIO-TECHNICAL investigations included research collaboration informed by participatory design and ethnographic field studies. Sharing this work with the LTER community through presentations and written communications remains a priority. Emphasis was placed on exploring communities with related interests so our find ings were presented at the Computer Supported Cooperative Work Conference in November. Collaboration with Geof Bowker (UCSD, Communication Dept) and with Helena Karasti (University of Oulu, Department of Information Processing) continues with our team leading a workshop on 'Computer Supported Scientific Collaboration' at the European Computer Supported Cooperative Work Conference in September 2003.

EDUCATION OUTREACH and information management partnered to present cruise journals on the web. A Palmer LTER Outreach workshop "Antarctic Storytelling" was held early in 2003 in preparation for the field participation of Lucy Bledsoe, an author with the NSF Artists and Writers Program. Other workshops included interface with previous TEA Besse Dawson, a Houston high school teacher, and with the digital library education community projects. Beth Simmons, teacher and curriculum designer, initiated definition and articulation of a Palmer LTER education framework within which science materials are being developed. Interface with the LTER Schoolyard took place via the All Scientists Meeting workshop "Integrating Long-term Ecological Research and Data into Education".

COMPUTATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE for the Palmer LTER within the Institute for Computational Earth System Science (ICESS) at UCSB included attention to network configuration, printer systems, and security upgrades. Investigation of existing oceanographic information systems resulted in discussions with the Palmer PI's and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute about the JGOFS data system. Partnership with the Integrative Oceanographic
Division at Scripps Institution of Oceanography renewed support for Macintosh platforms while providing opportunities to investigate Linux and open source software solutions. Focus remains on open source software (Apache, MySQL and Php), compatible with all partners.

PROJECT INFRASTRUCTURE work includes the annual updates to the Palmer LTER database. Database access was modified to include a 'data policy' acceptance page designed with input from all the Palmer LTER principle investigators. The site bibliographic database was updated and interface with the CERN CDSware software explored in collaboration with participants from the UCSD Library and San Diego Supercomputer. Website redesign included a three tier template format while final migration awaited upgrades in stability.


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