2001 LTER Site FlashLUQEda C. Melendez-Colom |
Two major activities are involved in this renovation. The first one was to publish and/or update the metadata and data on our Web site for all the catalogued data sets. The metadata forms where revised and re-designed, and a Web form is being developed. The second and more difficult task was the revision of the IMS. The main focus was to study and understand the concept of a "common data management framework", and to verify and enhance its implementation at the site.
Several surveys were conducted and reports produced during this period with the main purpose of informing the scientific community the progress of the mentioned activities and at the same time to share with them the new concepts we were defining and discovering as we study our system.
Lessons Learned The main lesson learned by the Data Manager in this process was the importance of the Web site in the review process. The Web site is seen as the graphical representation of the IMS at a site, most importantly for its data and metadata content, and secondly for the way it reflects the system in site. Is as if the Internet is an integral part of the Intranet at the site. It must reflect mainly the platform it provides to the scientific community for the research and synthesis activities at the site. Intuitively, we had started the process of developing this platform in 1997 (all IMS do), after our successful site review, but major logistic problems for the Institute that host our program got in the way and the process was interrupted, also our Web site was neglected and not properly updated for this review. The main lesson learned by the site's PI's was that they must actively collaborate with the Data Manager of the site in the development of the IMS so it can reflect the research that is done at the site.