The Scientific Computing World ‘Laboratory Informatics Guide 2010‘ is available on-line here.
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There’s a new Electronic Laboratory Notebook Group on LinkedIn – follow the link to join. This is the third ELN group to appear within the LinkedIn framework; you can read the rationale for establishing the group here. The SMi Group held their annual ELN conference in London last week, under the title ‘ELN: Laboratory Informatics for the 21st Century’. The programme contained a full range of good quality presentations on all aspects of ELNs and related topics that represented the state of the industry. As with most conferences on this subject, there’s not much new to report in the formal programme; its the informal discussions at the breaks that can generate most value. On this occasion, Apple’s announcement of the iPad, midway through the meeting, provoked some discussion about its potential use in the laboratory. The hype cycle is currently in full swing; we await the opportunity to get hands-on to be able to answer the question. There were a couple of points that did arise in the formal programme that are worth recording. The legal implications of ELNs has been a feature of ELN conferences since they first started. Generally the theme of the presentations has been the reassurance to potential purchasers of ELN systems that electronic records are acceptable in patent litigation and interference cases. There were two presentations in the SMi conference relating to legal issues of ELNs, firstly by Colin Sandercock and then by Matthew Dick (Bristows). Colin’s presentation focused primarily on the situation in the US, whereas Matthew gave an overview of the UK situation, plus some insights into the broader European situation. Surprisingly, there is no harmonization regarding discovery/disclosure relating to electronic records across the European Union. The most significant message that came from the two presentations was a subtle change of emphasis from ‘it’s perfectly OK to use electronic records in court’ to ‘there are some distinct benefits to using electronic records’. The benefits accrue mainly with the enhanced speed and accuracy of searching electronic records. Since the number of records presented in the discovery phase can be significant, computerised search tools can significantly shorten the time to extract relevant data, and hence reduce costs. The other presentation that was of particular interest was by Jo Mulgrew of Pfizer. Jo gave a detailed description of the support structure that Pfizer have put in place for a range of laboratory applications. The support system is based on ‘compliance’ of user adoption and uses a range of ‘Enterprise 2.0’ tools during and after implementation to optimise roll out and the on-going user experience of the application. I’m hoping, in due course, to post more details of Pfizer’s approach to in-house support as it seems to represent a benchmark and may offer some best practice ideas to other organisations. Allergan is holding the OpenLAB ECM User Meeting in California on January 21st, 2010. Signup free by January 10th, 2010. They are also looking for speakers. To see more details and to register, visit this link: http://www.chem.agilent.com/en-US/Products/software/Pages/WestcoastOpenLABECMUsers.aspx Metadata When I was in college one of the required courses in my field of study was metaphysics, a branch of philosophy that investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. Someone who studies metaphysics is called a “metaphysician”. When I first heard about metadata some years later, I immediately conjured up a magical profession where I would be called a “metadatician”. Metadata knowledge would propel me into a new reality above that of ordinary data where I would have powers to manipulate data using my supernatural skills. Over time, I began to understand that metadata was not as glamorous as I first supposed. Its grandfather is notes which were scribbled in the margins of books by readers to identify key passages and add personal insight. Rather than fall into a funk about my fall from the supernatural, I began to realize that metadata does indeed have very special, if not magical properties. Properly constructed metadata will give extended scope and clarity to a document. Properties such as title, date started, date completed, author, key words and custodian will be of great assistance in finding a particular document in a large repository. Metadata is information that helps to describe the context, content and structure about electronic information as well as books, photographs, audiotapes, video, etc. Let me give you an example of how to find records buried in large collections. A classic approach to find information is to ask the supposed author or former colleagues of the author if they know where the record resides. This usually results in some vague directions that require tedious searching through either boxes of paper records or file server folders. You may think that searching file share folders would not be that difficult, especially if they were indexed for full text searching. Full text searching may reduce the searchable pile, but might also overlook the information you are looking for. The date of completion is often a key to finding specific records and is usually not contained within the text of the document. There are several techniques for attaching metadata to a record. Perhaps the simplest and probably most widely used method is to list the metadata in a spreadsheet (Excel) along with a description of where the record is physically located. This process can be improved by moving up to a more rigorous database system (Access, Oracle, SQL) and/or document management software. Other common ways of adding in metadata are via an html file commonly used to find information via Google or other web searching tools. I use these metadata tags to help push my site up on the top of the results list when people are looking for a records manager consultant who has experience in the pharma/biotech business and resides in the San Francisco Bay area. It works great! Metadata tags can be attached to any Microsoft Office document and pdf file too. What’s new? Records Management / Archiving CA and Acxiom Corporation announced a partnership to deliver enterprise-class on-demand Information Governance solutions. Organizations today face significant risks and challenges managing, The new cloud-based, hosted solution from CA and Acxiom offers customers an alternative to on-premise software deployments, while providing a single portal view to better manage email, archiving, litigation holds, search, records declaration, retention and disposition Mimosa Systems Inc., announced email archiving, file archiving, and SharePoint archiving solutions support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 beginning November 30, 2009 Planned MoReq2 compliance for EMC Documentum:
ELN / LIMS Systat Software, Inc. announced that it has signed an agreement with Rescentris, Inc. to globally offer their joint product, SigmaCERF ™ – an Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) and knowledge management platform for life science research organizations. Charlie Sodano, PhD |
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