EARTHWORM Status Report


Alex Bittenbinder (alex@gldage.cr.usgs.gov) May. 4, 1998

This is an update of Earthworm status since the notes of 2/12/98 and those of Feb 12, 1998.

Like the stock market, the Earthworm community continues to grow at an amazing rate. At last count over seventeen individuals either had, or were, developing software for their Earthworm installations. The web-based documentation, thanks to the unrelenting drive provided by Steve Malone of the CNSS, has proven to be a powerful method for people to gain familiarity with the system. New installations have been brought up with minimal involvement of the core development team, and there are rumors of Earthworm running at sites with which we've had no contact. Further, several vendors of data loggers are moving to provide compatible acquisiton modules.

The next challenge may well be one of 'growth managment': On one hand, Earthworm is publicly available, with no strings attached. On the other hand, one of the basic objectives of the Earthworm effort is to provide cost savings by preventing duplication of effort. This implies substantial coordination and cooperation amonst the participating sites; and given the traditional nature of regional networks, this is a task wich tends to offer much fascination and color.

A straightforward solution would be to simply scale up: Create a larger Earthworm Central which would be capable of handling the increasing number (and complexity) of tasks. But this has the problem of potentially changing the nature of the effort, as a larger central organization might well weaken the role of the grass-roots membership. Such a trend would be disasterous, as it would undermine the basic strength of the effort.

Another solution may be to distribute the work load among several community organizations. The creation of the Earthworm Advisory Board (EWAB) was a step in this direction, and a lesson has been learned from this experiment: Regional network personnel really are very busy. Not surprising, since Earthworm came into existence precisely because regional networks suffered major cuts in funding and personnel. As a result, the surviving personnel face daunting work-loads, both in terms of volume and 'dynamic range' of tasks. In this environment it is not reasonable to expect ongoing, working involvement with an new effort which is not directly supported. EWAB involvement, however, implied exactly that.

A variation of this idea may be short term special interest groups. These could be convened as needed to resolve specific issues and dissolve promptly after the task was completed. The participants would be volunteers who have an active interest in the specific issue. Several such groups have functioned well so far: the specifications for CarlTrig were successfully set by an ad hoc group of seismologists, and numerous engineering promblems have been resolved by 'techie' group discussions. The scheme is attractive in that the participants have strong interests in resolving the issue and know that they are free once resolution has been reached (and not until then).

Ideas and comments are welcome.

CURRENT DIRECTIONS:

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS:

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