Skolr 2011 Pilot Project Final Report
Summary Report from the 2011 Skolr Digital Poster Service Pilot Project
The pilot project for the proposed Skolr digital meeting poster service was designed to test out the usefulness and potential value of a digital poster service for an organization that hosted poster sessions at its regular meetings. The opportunity was twofold: engage a wider science population with the notion of the digital poster session and gather their responses. These will inform further developments. Responses were collected on site (and through a follow-up survey) at the pilot test meeting, the 2011 Summer Meeting of the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP). Responses were also gathered from Tweets and other feedback from an article about Skolr that was published in the Miller-McCune Magazine. “Science Poster Given New Life Online” (July 22, 2011) [http://www.miller-mccune.com/science/science-posters-given-a-new-life-online-34066/]. Reactions were nearly unanimously favorable about the opportunity such a service provides for searching and finding poster content of value at a meeting or over time and among many meetings. The pilot software developed in Drupal 6 proved of value in testing the usability of Drupal as a framework for the software and to enable conversations about the desired features of the future service.
Some of the findings of the pilot project included these:
* Skolr adds real value to the poster sessions of even small (30-60 poster) meetings. Meeting participants were able to locate information of value online, and follow-up with conversations at the meeting.
* Skolr needs to work closely with meeting organizers to meet their needs first.
* Skolr will gain in value as a content repository (e.g., at PosterCommons.org) as more meetings use the service. This value, which is currently unexploited, extends across disciplines, regions, and time.
* Drupal can serve as a framework within which to develop the Skolr services.
* Skolr will need to build interoperability with meeting registration services to keep communication with meeting attendees simple.
The PDF of the full project report will be posted by 11-1-2011 Skolr Final Report