Plausible Accuracy

One bit of web technology that I strongly think every lab should have is an intranet.  This is a web site, accessible through any browser from anywhere, containing lab information.  The reason this is an intranet rather than a public website is because it is usually behind a password protected login, restricting access only to those with the proper credentials.

The reason I think that an intranet is so essential is because it really is a great way to share data and logistics information between members of a lab.  While some labs may alread have fantastic interpersonal communication, others do not.  Even if people are open and ideas are being shared constantly, there will always be moments when you or your colleagues come up with a brilliant idea, and need to store it somewhere to be worked on later.

The list of things you can do with an intranet is bounded only by your ingenuity.  Some things that come to mind immediately are:

• Set up Wikis for each project being worked on in the lab.  These are a good source of background information down the line when writing papers.
• Use shared calendars to schedule equipment use, plan for meetings, and let your colleagues know where you are.  Especially useful for the P.I.
• A repository for data of all types.  This can be very raw data straight from the bench, drafts of proposals, presentations, graphics, etc.
• A place to put announcements, schedules, etc.  Do away (largely) with mass emails to the group!
• You can even use the intranet to serve content to your lab’s public internet site, ensuring that the content is always fresh

So, why not have an intranet?  Mainly I believe that resistance falls into two categories.  The first is that people believe that setting up and maintaining such a system is cumbersome and not worth the time.  I disagree, and I hope to show you a few systems that are really quite simple to get running.  Secondly, people worry about putting the data onto any sort of website because they believe that it will get stolen.  To be honest, I don’t think that data theft is quite as serious a problem as many people seem to think.  Secondly, because the intranet is behind a password system, you can be reasonably sure that only those people you grant access to will see the data (as long as your group follows good internet surfing practices, like not remembering logins/passwords on public machines).  There are also options to set up the intranet so that it can only be accessed internally; for instance only those using machines with a given set of IP addresses.  This is more complicated (it will almost definitely need the involvement of your I.T. person), and much less useful in my mind.  What if you get a great idea from home?  Anyway, I’d be glad to discuss any reservations in the comments.  For now, let’s look at some possible packages to use.  You can click on the name of any one of them to go to their website.
Google Sites

This is the newest entry into the collaborative software market (it just went live the week before this writing).  It’s also one of the simplest systems in a number of ways.  To sign up, a user just needs an email address.  Google Sites works better if all users’ email is from the same domain (for instance, your school’s .edu address).

The system is very tightly integrated with Google’s suite of web apps (Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, etc).  You can very quickly build a simple page.  Here is an introduction video which demonstrates some of the features.

In all, Google Sites is very simple to set up.  It is sort of limited in flexibility, since you are tied down to using the Google Apps.  The interface can be clunky at times, but part of me wants to give Google the benefit of the doubt; since this is such a new product, I’m confident it will improve over time.  I feel like if your lab group already uses Google Docs often, then there is a very low barrier of entry to using Google Sites.  If you’d like something a little more flexible and powerful, however, you might want to keep reading.

Good:

• Fast and easy setup
• Built by Google, so you know that searching it later should be easy
• Familiarity of Google Apps to those who have used them
• Low maintenance

Bad:

• Tight integration with Google Apps means little flexibility
• Not Open Source, limited, customization
• Sites just feel a bit clunky now.  The integration with apps could actually be a bit stronger to facilitate data input.

Backpack
Backpack was recommended to me by a friend as a good solution for collaborative work.  It is quite powerful, containing all of the features of Google Sites and more.  Since everything is self-contained, the user experience is very smooth and polished.  If you click the link above, you will be taken to their home page, which includes a nice demonstration video.

To me, Backpack is almost perfect, with one exception: cost.  Most labs I know would need their “Plus” plan, which at $49/mo is just too expensive for most lab budgets.  Even this only allows for 15 members.  I think it’s simply too much to ask when just starting out with these collaborative tools.  By all means, if you have the money for it, give it a go.  Around here we spend our budget on reagents :)

MediaWiki

Anyone who has used the now familiar WikiPedia will immediately recognize MediaWiki.  This is the software that runs Wikipedia and is quite powerful.  This is more of a DIY method than the first two I’ve mentioned, and depending on your computing environment may or may not require the assistance of your I.T. professional to set up.  The reason is that instead of being hosted on a remote server, you download and install MediaWiki on a local web server.  These are quite simple to set up, and you probably have one running in your department already anyhow.  There are a few other drawbacks to MediaWiki as well.  Entering text is done with wiki markup rather than a more word processor-like WYSIWYG editor.  This means that the users will have to learn how to do it, which might hinder adoption.  Some of the features that we’ve seen in other collaboration suites don’t exist natively in MediaWiki, and/or are harder to set up.

Although this all sounds sort of rough, there are some benefits to MediaWiki.  First of all, since it’s hosted on your hardware, you have control.  Also, you won’t be sending data to 3rd parties.  It’s more complicated to use, but also much more flexible.  It’s Open Source Software, with a very active development community.  It doesn’t cost anything.

I think that MediaWiki is an excellent package for a technically minded P.I.; one who understands a bit of code and is on good terms with the I.T. person.  For others, it might be a little too complicated (at least to start with).

Use a Content Management System

Finally, coming to the end of the “complexity” scale, we can think about using a full Content Management System (or CMS).  There are two nice open source packages, Joomla and Drupal.  Both are remarkably powerful and well-polished (just check out these features!).  They are also the hardest of all of these packages to get running.  This will definitely require the I.T. person, unless you are already responsible for your own web site/server.  The work will pay off, however, in that you will end up with a fully functioning group intranet, along with a public front page that will represent your group well to the community.  Both packages are free to download and use, and a site built on either is really phenomenal.  This isn’t the time or place to go into everything that a CMS can do, but take a few minutes and check out the Drupal demo.  I think you’ll be impressed.

So, there we have it.  I hope I’ve introduced you to some new software packages that you weren’t familar with before and gotten you interested in checking out some of these systems for use in your own lab.  I’ve tried to cover the spread here so that anyone can find something they can use.  One thing I have to repeat is that no matter which one you choose, please choose one!  I think that the minor investment of time and energy it takes to implement a lab information management system will pay for itself many times over in increased productivity and communication.

If you’ve heard of and/or used any other products, make sure to mention them in the comments.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 12:19 pm and is filed under practice of science, web development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.