As part of my IST 600 Science Data Management class, I will be posting my work for the semester on this site. I will be working with eScience fellows and collaborating on some interesting data projects. I hope to organize it in a sane and convenient manner. So keep your eye out for some data flying at you!
Jan 30, 2011
Jan 24, 2011
Spring Renewal
The semester finally started today, so hopefully this will kick start the blog going forward. I have a nice new volunteer/internship at Bird Library uploading digital documents into the open-access repository SUrface, a cause I am really dedicated to. I have some really challenging classes dealing with scientific data and management as well, but I usually have more activity the more I am challenged intellectually.
One thing I am thinking about now that I have drilled down a bit more and gained more experience is just how bad the data deluge is (or tsunami if you prefer). Which I always knew about, really, but once you throw metadata needs in there, too... yikes. Hopefully my job and classes will give me some ideas on how to get self-described data into repositories that last long into the future.
Jan 11, 2011
Prehistory Changes More Than You'd Think
As a Classics nerd, I am amazed at the genesis of the Greek civilization. The hardest part is sometimes determining when it all started (defining civilization is always tricky). Harder still is trying to determine if there is anything really shared by certain steps (Cycladic->Minoan->Mycenean. Are they even related to each other?).
But this new find of 130,000+ year old tools on Crete is incomprehensible if true. The edge of prehistory is obliterated by the shear length of time, and even suggests pre-modern human sea travel. Could any of this really be possible? It's so long ago, we have to start thinking about if there was an ice age at the time, if this could possibly be Neanderthals, etc. This find could show us just how little we know about prehistory.
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