speciesbank dreams and realities rainer froese ifm-geomar march 2005
DESCRIPTION
Reality Check: Background Two-third of all major software projects fail (IHT )TRANSCRIPT
The SpeciesBank Dream
„... a computer interface to the Internet able to find, combine and present data in a way that would be meaningful and
useful to the person who issued a query about a species.“
Reality Check: Background
Two-third of all major software projects fail (IHT 25.1.05)
SpeciesBanks, what are they not?
• Regional or global checklists• Purely distributed systems• Google: mix of good and garbage• Three year projects• Amateur products• Specialist products• Committee products• Community products
Reality Check: Users
• Taxonomists?• ‚Decision makers‘?• Stakeholders?• Nobody?• Depends on usefulness:• Mostly interested public & students• Few specialists
FishBase Web Users
Individuals
Private sector
Universities
Governments
NGOs
Museums
Int. Research Centres
Based on 2122 entries in the FishBase Guestbook, June 2004
FishBase Users by Continent
North America
Europe
Asia
South America
Africa
Australia
Oceania
Based on 2122 entries in the FishBase Guestbook , June 2004
Reality Check: User Needs
• Politically very important• Boring at best (motherhood statements)• Typically misleading
– Most users don‘t know what they need• Scientific approach: analyze actual usage
of what is available
FishBase Usage Compared with Internet Usage by Country, in 2001
0.0001
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100
Internet Users (% of all Users)
Fish
Bas
e S
essi
ons
(% o
f all
Ses
sion
s)
USA
Qatar
Fr Polynesia
Brunei
Japan
China
South Korea
Russia
Taiwan
India
Lebanon
Venezuela
0.0001
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100Internet usage by country (%)
Fish
Bas
e us
age
by c
ount
ry (%
)(J
uly
2004
)USA
China
Greece
Luxembourg
Saudi Arabia
Peru
Pakistan
Ghana
Belarus
Cuba
South Korea
Russia
BrazilAustralia
JapanGermany
PNG
India
Kenya
FishBase Web Usage by Topic May-July 2003
Common Names
Scientific Names
Direct Links
Species Summaries
Photos
Fish Quiz
Specialist Topics
Based on hits by directory on CGNET server
Common names
Scientific names
Direct links
Species summaries
Photos
Fish Quiz
Specialist topics
Based on AW Hits by directory on Kiel server
FishBase Usage by Topic July 2004
Frequency of FishBase Usage by Topic
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Genetics
Diseases
FishQuiz
Reproduction
Maps
FB book
Physiology
Population dynamics
Trophic ecology
Identification
LarvalBase
Scientific Names
Museum collections
Eschmeyer
Glossary
References
Country information
Photos
Common Names
Species Summaries
Percent of total page views (July 2004)
About 10,000 visitors per month
What Determines Usage
• Quality and accuracy?• Recognition of scientists behind database?• MoUs? • Beautiful interface, fancy tools?• Content: common names, photos, summaries• Simplicity of interface (e.g. Google)• Number of clicks needed; response time
FishBase Usage over Time
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
A 98 A 99 A 00 A 01 A 02 A 03 A 04 A 05Years (August)
Hits
(mill
ions
)
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
Use
r se
ssio
ns (t
hous
ands
)
What Determines Usefulness?
• Actual use• What is not used is useless• How about yourself (the custodian)?
1
10
100
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000
Myx
Ceph
Holo
Elasmo
Sarco
Actino
Species per Class (n)
Str
ateg
ies
per
Cla
ss (
n)
Number of strategies used by phylogenetic Classes plotted over number of recent species in the Class, with linear regression line forced through the origin; slope = 0.37; r2 = 0.9754 .
1
10
100
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000
Actino
Elasmo
Sarco
Species per Class (n)
Ord
ers
per
Cla
ss (
n)
Orders per Class plotted over Species per Class. Sarcopterygii, Elasmobranchi and Actinopterygii fall nearly on a hypothetical straight line through the origin; slope = 0.37.
1
10
100
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000
Species per Class (n)
Ord
ers
per C
lass
(n)
Animalia Plantae Fungi Protozoa Max Orders
Actinopterygii
Insecta
Orders per Class plotted over species per Class for four Kingdoms and 415,000 species; the dotted line indicates the maximum number of Orders per species in a Class; slope = 0.37.
What is the Best Quality Assurance ?
• Scientific degree of encoders?• Double-encoding?• Hierarchy of checking?• Usage by custodians!• Usage by others!
Speed of Data Flow
What determines speed of data flow?• Bandwidth?• Trust!
How to Prioritize Data Entry
What approach is best when prioritizing data entry?
• User need analysis?• Importance and quality of data?• Opportunism! Enter what is ready for
entry.
Enemies
Who are your most dangerous enemies?• Critiques?• Jealous colleagues?• Unconvinced donors?• Institutions!
Data Encoders
Who are the best data encoders?• Students?• Long-time staff?• Experts?• Women!
Members of the FishBase Team in 1998
Back to Dreaming
Building the AllFish Species Portal1. Form Consortium of respective SpeciesBank
Custodians and Institutions2. Agree on Concept, Standards and Protocols3. Use FishBase Interface and Servers4. Have small AllFish Encoder and Programmer
team 5. Find modest funding from different donors6. Have AllFish up-and-running within one year
Don’t Dream It
Be It