So, here is my half-baked idea:
Why not have a special week where new online collaboration tools are promoted to scientists globally ?
Similar to the way local Linux user groups sometimes run “installfests” to install Linux for users, (just to get them over the initial interia), why not have a global “signup-fest” for the core set of online tools useful for scientific collaboration ? In each local area / University / Institute, a few Web2.0 savvy scientists could promote the event and hand-hold new users through the signup process, and help with basic usage and integration of tools. Ideally, lab groups could signup together in the same room, and make an event of it. Or in places with Wifi … a “bring your laptop” signup lunchtime event. I think you get the idea.
Continue reading ‘A “Web2.0 for Scientists Week”: signup-fest ?’
Archive for the 'web2.0' Category
I updated ResolveRef last night and checked in the most current sourcecode to svn at Google Code.
New features include:
- Suggest/autocomplete for journal title field, using the journal title lists provided by PubMed.
- A “Verify” button. Allows a ResolveRef URL to be constructed with the web form and verified as working and valid without actually forwarding the user to the article.
- Some bugfixes (handled the case where there is no DOI in the PubMed record, handled network timeouts to PubMed)
- Refreshed visuals
- Disqus comments box for feedback
In the interest of just getting something working quickly, I implemented the suggest feature in the laziest, possibly most RAM and CPU hungry way possible (the “JQuery Suggest” code queries the web app with substrings as you type each character. At the server side, the app uses a regex to scan a ~1.5 Mb list of journal titles held in RAM). I’ve already noticed a few “This request used a high amount of CPU” warnings in the logs, with the threat “High CPU requests have a small quota, and if you exceed this quota, your app will be temporarily disabled“. If my nasty hack starts heating up Google’s datacentre too much, I might have to disable the ’suggest’ feature until I can implement it “properly”.
Continue reading ‘ResolveRef updated : now with auto-suggest and source code’
One of the nice features of Google App Engine is you can easily view logs for your application to quickly see requests generating errors. Browsing the logs of ResolveRef, I’ve been able to identify an few classes of query which for one reason or another, weren’t working.
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