1 Reply by Graham French

  • Graham French
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Re: Proposed NBN Gateway changes to administration and record commenting

Following an earlier review with some key data providers a suite of proposed changes to the administration facilities on the NBN Gateway have been draw up and it is planned to include these in the next version of the NBN Gateway (due to be released in June 2010).

These changes will affect all administrators of datasets on the NBN Gateway and before commencing the development we would like to consult more widely, hear your views (positive or negative) on the below proposals.

Please post your comments below, including any additional suggestions for improvements to organisation or dataset administration or record commenting facility on the NBN Gateway

Full details of the proposal are included in two attached documents in the file uploads (Improving administration pages on the NBN Gateway and Making the data validation facility on the NBN Gateway more open) but in summary the key changes proposed are:

1. Require a user applying for access to specify precisely what level of access they require – this is to avoid users applying for access when they already have the necessary access and also make responding to requests more efficient.

2. Send automated reminder emails to administrators that don’t respond to access requests within 20 days  – some requests for access go unanswered (and were previously being chased up by the Access and Accreditation officer). We propose to establish an automated facility to remind administrators.

3. Allow organisation and dataset administrators to search for registered users by email address – this is primarily to provide a faster mechanism for administrators to find certain groups (for example anyone with an RSPB email address)

4. Provide a history of dataset access requests and changes to dataset administrators – all responses to access requests are logged on the Gateway but these are currently not visible to administrators

5. Allow administrators to view the individuals associated with an organisation – currently when an administrator grants access to a whole organisation it is not possible to see the individuals who are associated with it (and hence who they are actually granting access to). This information will now be exposed to administrators.

6. Consider a redesign of the administration screens – as part of the development the whole design of the administration screens will be reconsidered with an aim of making the administration process more intuitive.

7. Making the record commenting facility more open – allowing any logged in user on the Gateway to comment on records but retain the ability to switch off a user right to do this

Best wishes

Graham French
NBN Technical Liaison Officer

Graham French's Website

2 Reply by Matt Smith

  • Matt Smith
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Re: Proposed NBN Gateway changes to administration and record commenting

I have looked through the documentation accompanying the e-mail circulated regarding these proposals, as far as I can see the changes proposed will provide some helpful addtions to the functionality of the site.  If a new version will be coming out in June, could I please reiterate my request for an automatic "remember me / auto login" facility to be added to the site (see http://forums.nbn.org.uk/viewtopic.php?id=1465).

One thing I am a little unclear on is the actual current purpose of "validating" a record on the Gateway.  As far as I can see, if I "validate" or add a comment to a Gateway record, then only I and the dataset administrator can see the comments.  The few times I have used it I have primarily looked on it as a personal note for myself along the lines of "take care with this record".  Other users looking at the dataset do not see that has been a "validation query" logged against a record, so may take the record at face value. 

I would like to see the fact that a record has a "validation query" logged against it available for all users to view.  From a "Gateway User" point of view, I would like to be able to see a list of any queries I have made, along with their resolution.

Having not had a query arrive on any of the datset I administer, I am not sure whatwould actually happen at my end.  We appear to have an "accept / reject" screen detailing records with a "validation query".  If, for example, I reject a query, will the Gateway keep track of any comments I may add and keep them with the record so that users can see that a particular record has ben queried and "re-validated" by the dataset admin.  If a record looks particularly "odd", the fact that comments on previous "validation queries" could be seen may prevent multiple queries on the same record over a period of time, and may provide addtional confidence in a particular record.

Matt

Tachinid Recording Scheme

3 Reply by charliebarnes

  • charliebarnes
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Re: Proposed NBN Gateway changes to administration and record commenting

Matt Smith wrote:

One thing I am a little unclear on is the actual current purpose of "validating" a record on the Gateway.

Of course, it would be better to correct the problem at source, and only upload valid data...:rolleyes:

Charlie Barnes
Information Officer
Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership

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4 Reply by trichoptera

  • trichoptera
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Re: Proposed NBN Gateway changes to administration and record commenting

This is possibly not relevant, but I would like to make it easier to decide what records to query for validation.  Is there a way of making the dots for particular data sets a different colour.  In a few months I will be submitting my revised Trichoptera Recording scheme data set, which I hope will be the gold standard against which the rest can be checked, To see the scheme's records one colour will help see what of the rest is out of area to check. 

We will end up with three categories of record for caddis. The recording scheme records that are validated by me but it will not say so anywhere.  A lot of other records that I have decided to not query = by default validated by me but no comment made to that effect anywhere and a few that will have comments from me or others.

Once the initial work is done then I would like to be told of any new caddis record going on to the data base so I can then do a colour matching job OR that is done automatically and outliers flagged up for me.

I suppose in a way I have the same query as Matt, what is the purpose if comments about a record cannot be seen by enquirers.

Probably missed something here.

Ian Wallace
Caddis Recording Scheme

5 Reply by Colin.McLeod (edited by Colin.McLeod 22-04-2010 12:00:10)

  • Colin.McLeod
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Re: Proposed NBN Gateway changes to administration and record commenting

The proposals all sound sensible to me.
If there is developer time available, I'd also like to reiterate my request (suggested via Gateway Feedback on 20 August 2009) for a facility to time-limit better access to datasets. Requests quite often relate to time-limited projects, e.g. student dissertations, planning applications etc. But there currently is no way of granting access for a limited time only, and if administrators later wish to revoke access this has to be done manually - otherwise every dataset accumulates an ever-growing list of users, many of whom no longer require access to it, and who my not even have the same email and contact details that they had when they applied for access.
To complicate administration further, the list of users for each dataset doesn't even display when access was granted (although it is possible to see when they last visited the Gateway, assuming they logged in), meaning a separate note has to be kept of this.
It would be very helpful if there was a facility for data providers to approve access for, say 1 week, 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, or indefinitely.

It would also be handy if the list of users for each dataset visible to administrators displayed when they became a registered NBN user, if this wouldn't fall foul of DPA restrictions (I assume that DPA wouldn't be an issue, as the equivalent information for members of this forum is displayed for all to see!) 

Colin McLeod
Data Custodian
Information Management Unit
Scottish Natural Heritage
Battleby
Redgorton
Perth
PH1 3EW
UK

Colin.McLeod's Website

6 Reply by Graham French

  • Graham French
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Re: Proposed NBN Gateway changes to administration and record commenting

Additional comment sent be email

Broadly this looks fine and sensible.  I have also asked a couple of others here for comments.

A couple of minor points.

Improving Administration Pages
Point 2.3  Reminders to Administrators.  It would be helpful at times anyway to be able to close a request but without actually sending an email to the requester.  For example in some cases there will have been some (in some cases cases quite a lot) of specific discussion outside of the Forum, or in some cases it will just have dealt with completely in another way, such as if the requester has misunderstood things.

Point 2.4  Downloading data.  Ideally it would be good to be able to allow requester to download only part of a dataset, eg for a region or a species in multiregion or multispecies datasets.

Point 2.5 Making visible a list of people in organisations -- excellent idea!

Data Validation Facility
My only comment is that it would be helpful not to restrict things to Recorder as by no means everyone uses it.

We also think that maybe the big issue really is persuading people to take an interest in checking and validating.  Allowing comments is a start but it is certainly not the end.

Graham French's Website

7 Reply by John Bedford

  • John Bedford
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Re: Proposed NBN Gateway changes to administration and record commenting

Regarding sending automatic reminders to administrators who do not reply to access requests within 20 days, when this facility is implemented, will this pick up all currently outstanding access requests?