Two news items caught my attention today. The first of these popped up in my news reader: ‘Why ELNs are doomed’. Jonathan Gross’ blog on BioData Blogs raises a familiar concern about the relative ease of use of paper and electronic lab notebooks in the laboratory environment. It has generated some input of friendfeed. Whereas Jonathan foresees armageddon for ELNs, most organisations that have gone down the ELN route would probably choose to disagree. Although Jonathan raises important questions about the process of documenting an experiment whilst physically present in the laboratory – his post shows a photograph of a particularly cramped working space – for most organisations, the real value in the ELN has more to do with the long term value of a corporate knowledge base. Anyway, to keep a sense of balance, here’s someone who sees it all differently.
But getting back to the point, locating computers in the laboratory is not new; we’ve been doing it for 40 years or so, and its getting easier. Flat screens, mounted on telescopic arms, membrane keyboards, on slide-away trays, and use of KVM devices to switch the desk-bound processor between use at the desk or in the lab, have all helped. Of course this doesn’t overcome the basic mobility of a paper notebook, and it remains to be seen whether mobile electronic devices will have any impact on laboratory work. Already there are ELNs that are iPad-ready; there’s a major LIMS vendor that has been advertising for some while, a LIMS running on an iPhone. It is possible that these mobile devices may offer the possibility of capturing data, notes and ideas that can be synced back to a laboratory system so that the chore of sitting down and fully documenting an experiment can be conducted in an office environment.
But what if…..we were to use multimedia, rather than just text and images, to record experiments, or if the laboratory became a ‘Minority Report’ example of ubiquitous computing???? It may be some way away, but I suspect its not the ELN that is doomed.
The other news item appeared on the BBC website: ‘MI5 staff who lack computer skills made redundant’. (MI5 is the UK counter-intelligence service). In a round of compulsory and voluntary redundancies, MI5 staff lacking IT skills are being told that they are not wanted. Counter-terrorism is increasingly dependent on technology and officers have to adapt to keep up and to be completely comfortable using computers and the latest technology. This would never happen in a laboratory, would it?
