1 Reply by hannah

  • hannah
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  • Registered: 22-07-2008
  • Posts: 6

Re: Indicia Review

Dear All,

I am undertaking a project in the North West of England, looking at organisations data submission systems. Across the North West there is a recognised need to standardise how data is exchanged between LRCs and data providers. The LRCs have standardised on the Recorder software package, whilst recording groups will typically use MapMate or provide information in spreadsheets or paper-based formats.  Exchange between these formats can be time consuming and problematic.  It is also important that there is a clear audit trail and records are subjected to similar levels of validation and verification across the region.  In Cheshire and Merseyside, an online system, RODIS, has helped to address some of these issues.  There are also concerns by recording groups who recognise the benefits of sharing data with LRCs, but rely on the income from data requests or the sale of atlases to fund the running of their groups.

The objectives of the project are as follows:
•    Develop a standard format for data submission across the region and provide assistance to recorders with adopting the process.
•    Identify mechanisms for providing support to recording groups to address loss of income from providing data to record centres.

The reason I am posting on the forum is, I was wondering if anyone could advise me on Indicia, let me know their views and opinions, how the software has benefited your organisation, and if you are not using Indicia if you plan to use it in the future? I am going to review all of the current data submission systems available, and find the best option that will suit the North West. so I would be very grateful on anyone’s opinion, and also any hints, tips, guidelines and how it will benefit organisations will be very useful

Thanks for your time

Hannah :)

Hannah
RECORD IT Assistant

hannah's Website

2 Reply by wilkin_s

  • wilkin_s
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  • Registered: 31-03-2006
  • Posts: 87

Re: Indicia Review

Hi Hannah
I cant answer all of your points but just to pick up some:
- MapMate to Recorder exchange - my understanding is (but correct me if I am wrong) that going from MapMate to Recorder is OK. We could do with consolidtaing the documentation around this but it works. It tracks the keys in MapMate etc so that it is clear exactly where the records have come from. The converse (Recorder to MapMate) is problematic and I cant see anyway around this (as it requires changes to MapMate as well as Recorder and MapMate is not prepared to consider making the necessary changes).
- Recorder has been designed as a collation tool so picking up data from a wide range of sources and formats and standardising them into a single collation. Obviously the more 'standard' the data are when they arrive at the collation point the less the overhead in collating them. For example if the species names are all spelt correctly the job of importing them in considerably eased. I woudl imagine that this is one of the areas that you will be exploring in the project.
- Indicia has been designed as a data capture system. The original spec was to establish an on-line capture mechanism with a view to the data captured later being transferred to a collation tool such as Recorder. Obviously it is just another standard format that Recorder could be optimised to pick up and import (or rather making sure that the Inidicia export matches something that Recorder can already easily import). Inidicia has not really been designed to behave as a general data collation and management tool - that is a significant increase in the functionality it currently offers. I would imagine that it would have a role within your project as it effectively gives an alternative route to your recording community to digitise their data and has a coupel of advantages (tight formating ofthe data and giving the contributors some visualisation functionality). Key point though is I would not see it completely replacing all mechanisms in the short term - users will have a range of systems in place and will carry on using them so you project obviously needs to bear this mind.

Best wishes
Steve
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3 Reply by hannah

  • hannah
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  • Registered: 22-07-2008
  • Posts: 6

Re: Indicia Review

Thank you very much for your response Steve, it has helped greatly.

Hannah
RECORD IT Assistant

hannah's Website