System design and organization, access to data
Other issues touched on system usability, data availability, access and
dissemination, system design, ongoing maintenance and the benefits
of maintaining personal contact. There was a proposal of a coastal
observatory running in parallel with the information system (which stores
databases of contacts, organizations and areas of expertise), augmented
by a SW regional coastal Website incorporating a newsgroup or a SW
Coastal Forum.
The advantages and drawbacks of each template.
Query Type
Advantages
Drawbacks
Geographic
User-friendly (no typing)
Immediate visual impact
Handling disparate scales
Handling non-spatial and temporal metadata
Lack of speed
Too much complexity
Dialogue
Flexible and simple
Conversational style - intuitive
Handles non-spatial and temporal
metadata
Slow and tedious for the experienced
Assumes user knows target metadata
The correct key words have to be chosen for the query
List
Familiar
Clear and simple
Good for the IT novice
Constrained by the list
Slow and tedious
Recommendations
An Internet-based hybrid system is proposed, for maximum and
effective dissemination. The popular geographical template will be
used as default, with the dialogue or list query (which will be displayed
instead of the map when selected) to be usecl for a spatial queries. Further
initiatives include:
- the lateral linkage of information through hyperlinks and keywords
in the metadata output that would be subject to search;
- metadata of different spatial scales can be explored by clicking on its
marker on the map to give a scale circle (or polygon if the area is precisely known);
- several levels of access effected by accounts and passwords over the
Internet;
- a glossary for specialist words, accessed via hyperlinks or ‘Tool Tip Text’;
- clarifying the icons in the geographic template, colour-coding metadata sites according to theme and specifying an area of interest with a
polygon;
- making the dialogue more explanatory, with use of leading questions
and choices. This will reduce emphasis on the black box approach.
Suggested additional fields in the metadata output will include whether
the listed data is available or not, and whether the data referred to is
spatial or aspatial. Metadata output fields in general should nor be set
in stone, and should be modified as applicable (e.g. in response to the
forthcoming ISO standard). Hyperlinks to Web addresses conraining
indices, thematic summaries, EU initiatives, environmental data and other
contextual data will be enabled. These will all have a corresponding metadata entry.
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Other issues touched on system usability, data availability, access and
dissemination, system design, ongoing maintenance and the benefits
of maintaining personal contact. There was a proposal of a coastal
observatory running in parallel with the information system (which stores
databases of contacts, organizations and areas of expertise), augmented
by a SW regional coastal Website incorporating a newsgroup or a SW
Coastal Forum.
The advantages and drawbacks of each template.
Query Type
Advantages
Drawbacks
Geographic
User-friendly (no typing)
Immediate visual impact
Handling disparate scales
Handling non-spatial and temporal metadata
Lack of speed
Too much complexity
Dialogue
Flexible and simple
Conversational style - intuitive
Handles non-spatial and temporal
metadata
Slow and tedious for the experienced
Assumes user knows target metadata
The correct key words have to be chosen for the query
List
Familiar
Clear and simple
Good for the IT novice
Constrained by the list
Slow and tedious
Recommendations
An Internet-based hybrid system is proposed, for maximum and
effective dissemination. The popular geographical template will be
used as default, with the dialogue or list query (which will be displayed
instead of the map when selected) to be usecl for a spatial queries. Further
initiatives include:
- the lateral linkage of information through hyperlinks and keywords
in the metadata output that would be subject to search;
- metadata of different spatial scales can be explored by clicking on its
marker on the map to give a scale circle (or polygon if the area is precisely known);
- several levels of access effected by accounts and passwords over the
Internet;
- a glossary for specialist words, accessed via hyperlinks or ‘Tool Tip Text’;
- clarifying the icons in the geographic template, colour-coding metadata sites according to theme and specifying an area of interest with a
polygon;
- making the dialogue more explanatory, with use of leading questions
and choices. This will reduce emphasis on the black box approach.
Suggested additional fields in the metadata output will include whether
the listed data is available or not, and whether the data referred to is
spatial or aspatial. Metadata output fields in general should nor be set
in stone, and should be modified as applicable (e.g. in response to the
forthcoming ISO standard). Hyperlinks to Web addresses conraining
indices, thematic summaries, EU initiatives, environmental data and other
contextual data will be enabled. These will all have a corresponding metadata entry.
101