[LTER-im] Web site transitions and network personnel database

[Marty Downs]

Greetings from the NCO, where we have been hard at work on a new LTER
Network website. I apologize for some failure to communicate on this -- I
kept thinking we were within days of being able to share a prototype and
then some new issue would come up. I know you are all familiar with how
that can go on any new website -- and this one has some particular
challenges.

The LTER PersonnelDB, like the SiteDB, involved several complex backend
connections to the Drupal web site and to the mailing lists. When the data
and communications offices were separated, it became necessary to simplify
this architecture. We have tried to do so in a way that maintains important
communications and information functions.

To keep in-sync with EDI, we are maintaining the LDAP (so your existing
passwords will continue to work), but are adding a few fields (LTER
site(s), LTER role(s) and Committee membership(s)) that are critical to
Network functioning. We are also adding a field for an individual's ORCID.

Ultimately, we may transition to authentication via ORCID, but for now, it
serves to consolidate much of the information about what organisms and
ecosystems an investigator studied that had been part of PersonnelDB.

When the transition to the new WordPress site is complete, the LDAP will
connect directly to the new website and personnel DB will be shutdown and
archived.

In the new system, there will be three avenues for updating LTER personnel
information:


   1. Individuals will be able to login to the website and update their own
   information, except for committee memberships, which must be updated
   through the NCO.
   2. LTER IM's, or other designated site personnel, will be able to update
   personnel information on people associated with their site through the
   Network web site. (They will also be able to update their site profile page
   and add/update images associated with their site.)
   3. LTER IM's may provide a comma-separated values file with a list of
   site personnel and the NCO will upload it to the LDAP. Information will be
   pushed to the Network website within a day. Formats for those files will be
   released in mid-January if not sooner.


*In order to prepare for the transition, we have had to shut down the
Network personnel database temporarily, so wanted to let you know that you
will find it inaccessible until around the second week in January, when we
plan to launch the new site.*

Mailing lists will continue to function and the data will continue to be
accessible throughout the transition; you simply won't be able to make
updates to the data for the next few weeks. If there is an urgent need to
add an individual to a mailing list, please contact Marty and we can do so
manually.

Meanwhile -- while the website is not entirely ready for launch, it is far
enough along that you can get a good sense of the information it contains
and how it will operate. If you have a few minutes over the next few weeks
to peruse it, I would appreciate your thoughts.

   - View the new site (in progress) at lter.ndic.com   (Login and
   performance will be slower while it continues to reside on the development
   server.)
   - user login: dev
   - pass: ndicdev
   - Feedback -  email to downs at nceas.ucsb.edu or (preferred) via googledoc
   <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bgL01aU6BJa7_kdpNfAtQ4hZx73eP34mSxun6IPyENw/edit?usp=sharing>
(scroll
   down to view key questions)

Thanks very much for your patience.
Happy holidays!

Marty


-- 
Marty Downs
Deputy Director
LTER Network Communications Office (LTER NCO) <https://nco.lternet.edu/>
LTER Science Update
<http://us12.campaign-archive.com/?u=d7494403ed9d8c97a5479f0d4&id=9c0b9b36a4>
t: @USLTER
f: USLTER

National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
University of California, Santa Barbara
Office: 805-893-7549
Cell: 617-833-7930
downs at nceas.ucsb.edu
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