OpenWetWare:Feature list/Lab notebook/2007 Oct Brainstorming/Koch

Here is what I am currently thinking are key features

Ranked in priority in terms of likelihood of making wiki lab notebooks a killer app for OWW:

1. Drag and drop insertion of JPEGs or files into a notebook page.
2. Spreadsheet functionality w/ Excel-type simple data analysis and graphs
3. Ability to email to a blog-type notebook

My Notes

• As far as Julius' thoughts about using external software for editing and then plugging it into wiki:
  • My initial thoughts were that while this would be great for certain users, it still requires diligence and savvy that most users won't have. So, I think the focus should be on improving the wiki user interface and other wiki features.
  • But that doesn't preclude features as Julius mentions. Along the same lines, there are certain things, such as raw data collection, where it would be useful to be able to stream right into OWW. E.g., wouldn't it be nice if the gel imager (or any other instrument) could save directly to the OWW database?
• Per Anne Ozaksut (see below): spreadsheet functionality would be a killer feature to add.
• A "data entry mode" edit feature, to make it easier to enter data w/o having to remember to save periodically. For example, maybe autosaving every so often? Not sure..
  • I guess basically like a chat window?
• Java sketch pad (and some mechanism for converting to text)?
• Need to be able to email to the wiki (as w/ Social Text)...this provides a pipeline for adding notes to your lab notebook if you have to rush out of the lab, forget to write something down, or just plain have an idea. Of course, you can email to yourself and then cut and paste, but that takes diligence.
• Copyright and licensing problems--it is fine to paste any kind of picture or anything in a printed lab notebook as "fair use" (I think). But it's not OK to upload to OWW, because technically you are putting a "copyleft" license on it. (And it may not be fair use, since it's so widely available?) This is a problem.
• Better file uploading--drag and drop w/ version control
• Integration w/ WikiCommons or Wikipedia: (i.e., like for Wikipedia when you can embed images from the Commons)
• Agenda for brainstorming session:
  • Brainstorming about features
  • Thoughts on how to prioritize implementation
  • ?

From observing my Junior Physics Lab Students

• They are drawn to Excel because I haven't provided them a better option and the wiki doesn't do any spreadsheet, graphing, or data analysis.
• They like the table editor
• Many of them prefer to take data down on paper and then transfer it over. So far I'm not requiring e-notebook for primary entries, because sometimes it is necessary (computer not available, or need to have lights off and eyes adjusted).
• As far as giving feedback early and often, e-notebooks are far superior to printed notebooks, simply because I can access them anytime.
• I haven't detected any qualms at all about doing their work in public. So, it appears easy to create Scientists 2.0. :)
• Collaboration (and proper citation) between students, even on different lab days has been a real pleasure to observe...I think the wiki has added a completely new and very rewarding dimension to the traditional undergrad physics lab course.

From observing students in my own lab

• Uploading images a very common task (drag and drop would be awesome)
• Searching the wiki is frustrating

From Physics307L students

• A great idea from Anne Ozaksut, a student in Phyiscs 307L: Incorporate more spreadsheet and even graphing technology into the wiki. I have seen this with wikicalc, which I think was in collaboration with SocialText? The more I think about it, the more important it seems.
• The short-lived cookies (session doesn't last very long, even if you change this under "my preferences") is a real annoying thing
• The new table editor is great, but has a couple drawbacks
  • Has a bug so that data is lost when saving
  • Apparently creates non-wiki style table code that is tough to edit without the editor? (I'm not sure about this)

Links from Tom Knight, with a few comments from me

• There are commercial products in this space
  • Study commercial products for good ideas and steal them.
  • http://www.atriumresearch.com/html/eln.htm
  • http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/23172/
  • http://www.labtrack.com/
  • http://www.chem.agilent.com/Scripts/PCol.asp?lPage=58531
  • http://www.medibix.com/CompanySearch.jsp?cs_choice=c&clt_choice=t&treepath=16793&stype=i
• There are other open source projects in this space.
  • http://usefulchem.wikispaces.com/ (seems that e-notebook is just a wiki?)
  • http://www.ercim.org/publication/Ercim_News/enw46/mackay.html (Hardware)
  • http://www.thelabnotebook.com/ (looks clunky and I don't want to register to find out more)
  • http://www.opensourceeln.org/Members/webmaster/core/front.txt (open source version of their commercial ELN software)
  • http://sourceforge.net/projects/eln (not sure what this is)
  • http://www.neuroscholar.org/eln.html (seems complicated and not wiki-based)
  • http://www.csm.ornl.gov/~geist/java/applets/enote/ (this page has a list of features that would be good to look over)
  • http://collaboratory.emsl.pnl.gov/software/eln/
  • http://www.prep.biotech.vt.edu/ (not immediately relevant)
• See this article on capturing semantic information in the ELN.
  • http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/24093/