[LTER-im-rep] feedback regarding the direction of Databits

[Stevan Earl]

Dear LTER Information Manager,

Recall we had decided at our 2019 IMC meeting in Tacoma that we would
finish a discussion concerning the future of Databits, and settle on a
direction during our September water cooler (please see below for context).
In anticipation of that discussion, IM Exec and the Databits editors-elect
would like to get additional feedback from you to help frame the
conversation, and to provide IMC members unable to attend the water cooler
opportunity to provide input. With those goals in mind, we ask that you
please address this short survey (link below). The survey is anonymous, and
should take no more than a few minutes of your time. Please respond to the
survey no later than the end of the business day Wednesday, September 4th.

Under consideration is a proposal to change the current format of Databits,
a collection of articles and stories related to LTER information management
collected in PDF form approximately annually, to blog posts hosted on the
LNO website. These blog posts could be tagged with a category for Databits
such that it would work similarly to the tags used for each of the core
themes (e.g., primary production
<https://lternet.edu/research-themes/primary-production/>); stories could
run in their own stream as a sidebar on the IM page and also mixed in with
other story types on the home (and many other) pages; stories could employ
a Databits logo to identify them clearly; and there would be a single
archive where they could all be found. Databits stories on the LNO site
could be cross-posted to EDI such that the full catalog stays with LNO but
stories that are relevant to EDI also go on EDI with a link back to the LNO
site. Outsized advantages of this blog approach are that it would improve
searching tremendously, and make it far easier to reference and share links
to particular content. Some issues that we need to resolve include how
content would be moderated, that we will indeed continue to have Databits
editors, and whether there is still a place for content like Site Bytes.
Regardless of format (PDF issues/blog, or a mix), we would like your
feedback on how Databits would best serve our community going forward.

link to survey: https://forms.gle/XgEBGdT2vKGPQ3mX8

Thanks in advance for your consideration.


IM Exec


-- 
*Stevan Earl*
Information Manager, Central Arizona–Phoenix LTER
Data Manager, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability
P.O. Box 875402 | Tempe, Arizona | 85287-5402
PH: 480-965-1851 | Main: 480-965-2975
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