philosophy of protocol

[Peter McCartney]

I dont see any harm in writing a protocol and declaring its scope in the
manner you described. because you consider it abstracted enough to not put
it in just that dataset/s description then its obviously a protocol, just
one with a restricted scope of relevance

(you CAN fill in a coverage section in protocol)


Peter McCartney (peter.mccartney at asu.edu)
Center for Environmental Studies
Arizona State University
480-965-6791 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tim Bergsma [mailto:tbergsma at kbs.msu.edu]
> Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 8:46 AM
> To: Eml-Dev (E-mail); Peter McCartney
> Subject: philosophy of protocol
> 
> 
> Peter,
> 
> This one is strictly theoretical.
> 
> I quite agreed with your reminder yesterday that protocols are
> abstract.  It's rather poetic that one must declare an instance of
> method in order to link a protocol to a dataset in eml.  In 
> some sense,
> it seems reasonable that a protocol should not be inherently linked to
> any one data set.  What I'm struggling with is the generality of
> protocols.
> 
> How can I think about the following instance?  I have a 
> weather station
> LTERWS, and I have a weather dataset for LTERWS.  I keep a log of my
> activity at the station (methods).  Some months ago, I wrote 
> a protocol
> for how to conduct weekly maintenance visits to LTERWS.  I'm convinced
> that the protocol is abstract and descriptive, even generalized across
> weeks, but I can't help feeling that there is an inherent connection
> between the LTERWS protocol and the LTERWS dataset.
> 
> Similarly, we have lots of other protocols that are written explictly
> for a certain place and project, implictly for a certain 
> dataset.  Some
> are even prescriptions for one-time events (e.g. Spring 2002 
> fertilizer
> application protocol).  Am I using the concept of protocol 
> more broadly
> than eml intends?  Supports?
> 
> Tim.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Tim Bergsma
> LTER Information Manager
> W.K. Kellogg Biological Station
> Michigan State University
> Hickory Corners, MI   49060
> 616/671-2337
> tbergsma at kbs.msu.edu
> http://lter.kbs.msu.edu
> 
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