General FAQs

[whshannon]

current FAQ page on BCO-DMO website: https://www.bco-dmo.org/faq-page

FAQ page in Gitbook, in progress: https://app.gitbook.com/o/-LiioKfZ_6hmmUkbozT5/s/-MQxi3LV7ImgXRCb9ZcM/frequently-asked-questions-faqs

[whshannon]

I think there are a lot of questions on our current FAQ page we can get rid of (because they are covered elsewhere in Gitbook or are no longer relevant). I transferred over some of the questions to Gitbook, but these are the ones I did not include:

Who funds BCO-DMO?
Who are the people in BCO-DMO?
How do you pronounce BCO-DMO?

What are NSF’s requirements for data management?
What is NSF's data management plan?

How do I get started?
When should I contact BCO-DMO?
Does BCO-DMO have any guidelines for submitting data as a spreadsheet?
My data are online already. Do I need to send my data to BCO-DMO too?
Must data contributors send their data to BCO-DMO to have them accessible?
How can I submit large data files to BCO-DMO?
How much metadata is necessary?
Can my project get free help from BCO-DMO to manage my data?
What can I do to make the management of my data easier?
If I need data management help, who should I call at BCO-DMO?
What formats are available for downloading data from BCO-DMO?
How can the data that BCO-DMO manages be accessed?
Where does BCO-DMO archive the data?

Are there parallel DMO's for physical and geological oceanography?
How do I request the R2R event log capability on my upcoming cruise on a UNOLS vessel?
What is the JGOFS/GLOBEC data management system?

[DanieK]

Sorry, just coming up to speed... Is the intent to get rid of all of the current FAQs on the current (static) webpage by pushing the remaining ones not covered in Gitbook? And if so, were these not transferred b/c they are already there? I'm guessing, yes...

[whshannon]

We were talking about content for the new website today, and we have a placeholder link for 'FAQs' from the Resources menu (with the idea being that would go to an FAQ page in Gitbook), but we don't have FAQs in Gitbook yet. I think we just never transferred them from the current static site to Gitbook.

I could bring them all over... but wasn't sure they were all necessary. I think all of the answers can be found elsewhere in Gitbook, so it's moreso a matter of where will people look for answers? Do people go to FAQ pages or would they just go to the relevant section in the documentation using the menu along the left?

[whshannon]

Stand by @DanieK... I had started a draft FAQ page earlier today in the public-facing gitbook but didn't want to publish it yet and now I can't find it.

[whshannon]

Here it is: https://app.gitbook.com/o/-LiioKfZ_6hmmUkbozT5/s/-MQxi3LV7ImgXRCb9ZcM/frequently-asked-questions-faqs

[DanieK]

Thanks, @whshannon ! This looks great, and agree some of those old Qs are obsolete, or probably unnecessary given our current documentation. I wonder about your comment trying to guess where people would search first. Maybe we could ask @sauuyer about this since it seems to be a UX sort of question?

Personally, I would lean toward including some of the Qs around how to get started since new users may not understand our vocabulary or even where to search in the Gitbook, whereas FAQs are pretty well-known. Even if we just point them to the launching page for 'how to contribute'?

For example, the question about 'do I have to submit to bco-dmo if my data are online already?' I didn't find a quick answer to in our 'How To' Gitbook content... And I would LOVE to have the question 'when should I contact BCO-DMO' at the top of the list! (if you're reading this, your probably contacting us later than you should have!) ;)

[whshannon]

This drifted off my radar for a bit, but I just went through and updated the FAQ page in Gitbook - https://bcodmo.gitbook.io/how-to/frequently-asked-questions-faqs - so that it includes everything we have on our website - https://www.bco-dmo.org/faq-page.

I did omit one question and answer that is no longer relevant:

Must data contributors send their data to BCO-DMO to have them accessible?
No. BCO-DMO uses a distributed data management system called JGOFS/GLOBEC that supports distributed data servers. As long as your data can be placed on a Linux or Unix based machine that has a web site, your data can remain on your machine. The approach has the advantage of always serving the most up to date and accurate version of the data.

(There is a separate question about what to do if your data are already published online in a different repo)