![]() What is more, these sites and their structure have acted as a depository of information, data and references with a somewhat “volatile plasticity” if I may say, which allowed an up-to-date information dissemination, combining data from published works, museum specimens and even personal communications… It is unfortunate but understandable that this comes to an end. Indeed, this decision has come as a blow to several people who have been active in maintaining their Scratchpads sites - even having projects based on such initiatives. ![]() He lives and works on the Dakota Homeland in Minneapolis, MN. Poelen is an independent software/data engineer, Ronin research scholar, and UCSB CCBER research affiliate with an interest in open science and biodiversity informatics. Please feel to reach out, or share your thoughts below. I’d be happy to work with your to offer my expertise (within reason) to help review the architecture and finds ways to (1) independently create snapshots of one or more scratchpads projects and archive them, (2) suggest any path forward in supporting the platform in its current form, or (3) find a way to move valuable knowledge captured in Scratchpads and move them into some new home.Īs far as I can tell, there’s a desire to keep the some of some active project alive, and, as a maintainer of a project myself, I am eager to assist colleagues and share my skills in software engineering, software architecture, data publications, and designing knowledge sharing methods resilient against funding droughts or (temporary) inactivity… I am sure I am not the only one to have seen this. In my (short) 10 years of being active in the biodiversity informatics community, I’ve seen datasets, custom websites, and entire platforms come and go because human getting older, a change of heart, or funds running low. ![]() Perhaps you operate one of your own and have similar concernsĭarwyn Thank you for sharing your post re: Scratchpads.Perhaps the GBIF community are able to suggest means by which this valuable project might continue.No great success so far, one Scratchpad manager currently debating some solutions which would involve digging deeply into personal funds. We have been seeking support for their continuation amongst a range of partners, Dipterists Forum (~8 of our recording schemes use them), UKCEH and NBN (UK’s GBIF node who operate the NBN Atlas). Every indication is that the Scratchpads’ popularity will make the project as secure as any informatics project in the foreseeable future.Īnd indeed they have been useful, active and popular until last week’s announcement.Ĭonsternation is now widespread amongst all users, in particular those who are actively maintaining them. Without community support for infrastructure and content, the Scratchpads project will be short lived. Ultimately the longevity of the Scratchpads will be dependent upon whether they remain useful and actively used. The FAQ section of the Scratchpad website stated: ![]() my European Micropezids & Tanypezids and Barry Warrington’s Agromyzidae) Much to the consternation of the many of us who actively maintain these important sites (e.g. The final partner was Natural History Museum who recently announced that the project was to close, all sites reverting to “read-only” according to Vince Smith, Head of Digital, Data & Informatics at NHM Many will be familiar with the Scratchpad system which were created by the EU Network of Excellence (EDIT) in 2006 and continued to be support funded by GBIF, Biodiversity Informatics Group & EoL. ![]()
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