Everything you need to know to participate effectively in the Lithosurfer network.
Lithosurfer is a platform specialised on collecting, enriching and distributing information of geological samples.
Collating data with Lithosurfer in a well defined datamodel unfolds the information contained in it. It also makes FAIR data handling a reality.
The network is growing continously and so is the data. If you are already a node of the network or if you want to become one - here is the place to look for information.
Data quality and interchangeablity will improve.
Analyses can be run accross the border of typical data silos.
Relevant information about the analytical process, cross-references to originating samples and publications are directly accessible.
Geological data, financed by the public is made available to the public. Thats FAIR.
What the Lithosurfer Platform sets apart from other systems is, that it is designed from ground to be scalable. With a carefully designed access control layer (ACL) and modern cloud technology, it is easy to onboard new nodes and extend the platform to support new kinds of data.
Everybody can join. It is as simple as going to a Community Portal, register and login. The user is immediately able to organise his geological samples and analytical data. However, if a user is not associated to an institution, he will not get full priviliges (e.g. on IGSN minting of samples or on distributing data to the public)
Institutions are the nodes of the Lithosurfer Network. Lithosurfer Institutions don't neccessarily have to be a legal entity (companies or universities). However, most of the time this will be the case. So, if a university becomes a Lithosurfer Institution its staff will be associated with the universitie's Institution.
Being member of an Instution has effect on what data can be accessed (e.g. some samples might be shared only to other members of the Institution) and how the data is handled (e.g. each Institution has its own IGSN prefix).
A Lithosurfer Community is a group of Institutions. Communities can be build by organisations or governmental entities which are representing multiple institutions (=Community Management).
A Community Portal is a website utilizing the Lithosurfer Platform. Via this website members of the community can work collaborative on their data.
The ownership of data does not change by uploading it. However, if a company uploads sensitive data to take advantage of Lithosurfer features, the company has to make sure keeping the data in PRIVATE mode. The platform can't prevent wrong usage.
Uploaded data can be downloaded any time. Besides not being in danger of running into a lock-in situation the downloaded data will be in a well defined form which is great for inhouse use.
The Lithosurfer Platform is maintained by Lithodat Pty Ltd. Lithodat bundles resources to keep Lithosurfer running and to enable further development.
Individuals can go to the Lithodat Community Portal and register.
If you represent an Institution and want to register to an existing Community please contact the organisation that is building it (e.g. AGN, Lithodat).
If you want to create a new Community please fill out this short form to get in contact.
No institution works the same so requirements differ. For that reason the Lithosurfer Platform can be customized. Lithodat Pty Ltd is offering it's service to do so. Having Lithosurfer designed & implemented Lithodat has the expertise to customize the platform for your needs.
The most requested change to the Platform is it's extension for new analytical systems. If you don't find a fitting data model for your analytical system on the Platform (e.g. SHRIMP, FissionTrack) it is benefical to extend the Platform. A good start is to answer this model extension questionaire about your specific data.
For all other customizations please fill out this short form to get in contact.
Integrating software in existing processes can be a challenging task. Existing workflows shall not be disrupted. Necessary steps need to be as smooth as possible to find acceptance among the staff. Sometimes hurdles that could be removed easily (e.g. with a little software tool) prevent the process from being followed.
Please fill out this short form to get into contact for support on this matter.
Most of the time legacy data is available in undefined formats. Such data can not be imported to Lithosurfer (nor any other system) without cleaning and normalizing it before. This is very time consuming, because a lot of manual work has to be done. However, the necessary steps can be optimized.
If you want to profit from our data cleaning experience please get in contact via this short form.