BlogMyData

The JISC-funded BlogMyData project brings a collaborative element to online data visualization. We have created a new prototype Virtual Research Environment by combining the Godiva2 visualization system with the University of Southampton’s LabTrove blogging system. LabTrove was originally designed for practising chemists, but has been augmented with geospatial metadata-capture and search functions for use in environmental science. Using the VRE (screenshot attached), users can annotate visualizations with comments that highlight features of interest that they wish to discuss with their colleagues. These comments are saved securely as a blog, together with automatically-captured geospatial metadata, and can be discovered, read and commented upon by colleagues with the necessary privileges. Users can see the activity of their colleagues on the VRE by subscribing to RSS, GeoRSS and KML feeds, which can be consumed in commonly-used tools such as Google Maps, Google Earth and email clients. The prototype is now available for testing: please contact Jon Blower (j.d.blower@reading.ac.uk) if you would like access to the system to try it out.