MyToolSpace

From IPC_Public

I feel at this stage it will be important to support the process of preparing Grand Challenge Proposals. All Grand Challenge teams will, even when preparing a proposal, be faced with the problem of what their available toolbox is. That's an issue faced by plant biologists all the time, and walking along the corridor of my institute I keep getting asked "Do you know a tool/database that can do X". It's still hard to keep uptodate with available resources and tools. It's even harder to know which are any good, or how to tackle a problem if the methodology is yet unclear.

On the other hand, tool and resource providers are looking for users and feedback on how good their stuff is.

A social web portal could provide a query interface and catalog beyond database issues and link lists:

• concise descriptions
• user annotations and ratings (this tool's great! Five stars!), also as a start for discussions with the provider
• automatic check of availability (link dead?)
• help to discover similar functionality (users who used this tool also used...)
• problem-based compilations (I needed to analyse a 454 run on a cDNA library, I used these methods, tools and databases)
• establish links and interactions; this visualization tool works with output from..., this data can be layerd on...
• iPlant moderation: "badges" for standards-compliance, API for programmatic access, mashup possibilities
• ability to "flag" data and tools and rate priority for inclusion in iPlant cyberinfrastructure

Take a look at MyExperiment, which focusses on workflows, but has a growing userbase and utility.

--Heikoschoof 06:03, 9 April 2008 (MDT)