Current Projects
UIS Informatics Commission
The implementation of most of these projects will involve the
circulation of draft documents for commenting on by anyone
interested, and then eventual voting by member delegates from
each country.
If you have a particular interest in any of these projects or
issues, please let UISIC know. Similarly, if there is some
aspect you want to actively participate in, please send an email to
UISIC ( matthews@melbpc.org.au ) explaining what you would like to do and what your
relevant background is.
The basic approach taken by UISIC is to use numeric codes for
fields and field values, independent of any national language.
Each code's descriptive name and definition is then expressed in
various national languages. The stored codes are translated 'on
the fly' for screen, report or publication, according to the
currently chosen language. This technique has been
successfully used by at least one national database, the
Australian Karst Index.
Further information about projects can be found in the latest UISIC Report.
Projects
- Bibliography
- Compile a worldwide bibliography of cave and karst
informatics. This is being prepared by Günter Stummer of
Vienna. Please email
him <speleo.austria@netway.at> for details if you can provide
information about publications related to techniques for cave/karst
informatics, documentation, or inventorying.
- Data exchange standard
- UISIC has issued a proposal
to establish standards which will facilitate the transfer, consolidation,
and comparison of cave and karst data between independent databases. This
involves standards for record identifiers, field definitions, and
a transfer format.
- Speleological Subject Classification (SSC) System
- In co-operation with the UIS Bibliography Commission, produce an
expanded SSC System suitable also for classifying defined cave and karst
data fields. Such a subject classification system would also
have general benefit throughout the speleological community. In the
meantime, UISIC has produced a compatible
expansion of the existing bibliographic scheme in order to
classify data fields during the field definitions discussions.
- Cave and Karst Database Software
- Provide inexpensive multi-lingual software for operating a cave/karst
database. Such software to embody UISIC field definitions,
codes, and data transfer format.
[