Insect@thon Results

[Joris Komen]

Hi Peter:-)

It's morning now, so my brain can deal with details again:-)

you wrote:

>Joris,
>I'll try again, hopefully more clearly, to ask exactly
>what the kids had to work with...
>
>I'm just trying to understand the actual physical materials the
>students were working with so I can make better sense of the
>productivity (12.5 hours x 92 children (in teams), with 31
>computers, recorded 20,897 collection records about 97,696
>specimens) you reported.

Yup - 92 kids in teams of three, and one of four, with 66 kids
computer-illiterate, including 2 teams from Moreson (Sunrise:-)) School for
persons with mental disabilities.
>
>See specific questions below...
>
>On Mon, 16 Aug 1999, Joris Komen wrote:
>> >> 20, 897 insect inventory records
>> >> ... representing 97, 696 specimens in the
>> >> National Museum's insect collection.
>
>There were 31 computers, so were the 92 children working in
>teams, or were just 30 students at a time working with the data
>and computers? If in teams, how did they divide up the tasks
>involved in acquiring the data?

Mostly six kids representing one school team, with three kids per computer,
with various individually developed strategies centered around one kid
using the keyboard and mouse, one kid reading (interpreting:-)) a
hand-written insect catalogue record from a photocopied catalogue page
(A3), using a heavy metal:-) ruler to underpin the entry on the page, and,
critically, a third kid validating the computerized records.  Each school
team had a coach/mentor who provided (mostly) moral encouragement and
assisted with problem-solving.  There were also 2 entomologists, 2
entomology collection managers and 4 trainee entomology collection
technicians providing help with problem names, localities, etc.  There were
also 12 highly-skilled IT personel (NIIT) hovering around to provide
immediate response assistance to the numerous pecularities of Bill Gates
machines in the hands of computer-illiterates and literates alike:-). Thank
G. :-) we had the sheer elegance and robustness of FileMaker Pro database
software to compensate for inexplicable Windoz crashes:-).  The teams using
the four Imacs (the disabled kids on two of these), did not have a single
problem throughout the event!  Next year I am determined to have
Insect at thon 2000 carried out on 30 Imacs - then we will be able to stick to
schedule, not have sleep deprivation problems, and I'll be able to cleanly
thumb my nose at Bill Gates - what a prick - excuse my french:-).
>
>> catalogue number 22699 representing specimens 1 - 64, numbered 22699.1 to
>> 22699.64 all of the same species collected at one unique locality with a
>> known longitude and latitude (see our searcheable webtop locality
>> gazetteer:-)) by one distinctive collector sometime between 1937 and
>> 1989:-), with specific day, month and year information!:-).
>
>Is each of the specimens labelled with a label containing a
>unique catalog.specimen number, e.g., there is a specimen with
>the label 22699.1 on the pin, as well as having a paper catalog
>record for a group of uniquely-enumerated specimens, e.g., one
>catalog card for all 64 specimens, 22699.1-64 ?

Not exclusively with regards specimen labels - our labeled specimens are
kept together in taxonomic order - so all specimens  22699.1-64 would be in
the same cabinet location, all with labels indicating the paper catalogue
number (22699). Due to the poor status of African insect taxonomy, we have
made a conscious decision not to number individual specimens with a unique
number since 22699.48 might become a type specimen following taxonomic
revision.  The details of collection locality, collector, date, etc., where
unique enumeration has resulted from examination and identification by a
taxonomist - this is entirely dictated by the whims of the taxonomists who
request material from our collections - there are a huge number of
entomologists out there:-) who very frequently obtain loan material from
our collection (some 48 loans and 8000 specimens go out to taxonomists each
year).   Eugene Marais can provide you with more details and statistics -
I'm the curator of birds and IT manager:-)

>Were the children entering data from (paper) catalog records then
>(i.e., not directly from specimen labels)?

Absolu'mon:-) - paper catalogues:-)  There's no way we would let a bunch of
completely inexperienced kids into our specimen collections to examine
labels!!! That would have been a nightmare:-)!  HOWEVER,  the three top
winning teams WILL be coming to our Entomology Department to be given
appropriate training to deal with specimens and their labels - we
understand from a considerably range of sources that barcode readers often
have loads of insect fragments cluttering the scan surface after a
read-session:-).  Quite frankly, we predict that the three winning teams,
when they arrive in Stockholm, London and Berlin next year:-) to inventory
Namibian insect material in these collections,  will be more than
appropriately skilled to capture information, be it from catalogues or
specimen labels.  And we've potentially produced some new
computer-literate:-) recruits in the world of entomology and systematics!:-)
>
>> Our immediate post-event validation process picked up 3,232
>> invalid records
>
>What was the validation process? E.g., a sampling of specimens or
>catalog cards compared to the newly input computer records?

Not sampling, but a very elegant and very robust FileMaker Pro search and
sort process for invalid records.   The final validation of these data
captured on computer by the kids will be carried out by our entomologists -
after all, this is the responsibility of the professional entomologist.
Eventually every single computer entry will be checked against the
hand-written catalogue record, as well as the physical specimen material.

>BTW, I wasn't expressing any "misgivings" about your project.
>Again, I'm just trying to understand better what the project
>actually involved. I wasn't able to view the event by webcam.

What misgivings:-)?  We've got a winner here:-), and I would expect that
quite a few firstworld museum will take on the challenge of doing what
we've done with a bunch of kids in Namibia!:-)  Sorry about the webcam -
there was some serious traffic congestion resulting in 404s:-), but don't
worry, there'll be a bunch of pics posted on the insect at thon website in the
next 48 hours - I'll keep the list posted:-)

Cheers for the mo'

Joris @ Eugene @ Insect at thon