The Expanding NOW Community

This month, as the leaves change color and the weather turns chilly, we are delighted to announce the launch RU COLD!? the newest community blog on the COSEE NOW site. RU COLD features the adventures of Rutgers Oceanography students Kaycee Coleman, Michael Garzio and Travis Miles as they explore the frigid waters off the Antarctic Peninsula over during the Southern Hemisphere’s summer season.

If you are an educator we encourage you and your students to follow along and ask questions of these cool young scientists. We also encourage researchers who have been to Antarctica to join in on the conversation and “compare notes.” You can subscribe to the blog via email or RSS.

For those of you interested in expanding your Ocean Observing System horizons further, we recently expanded the number of workgroups on the COSEE NOW site. Workgroups are a great way to stay connected will other community members, and we encourage you to join in and start your own discussions.

Here’s a list of our thematic workgroups:

Finally, don’t forget to share your thoughts and stories in the Comments & Feedback Forum.

Discrete vs. Continuous

By Carrie Ferraro

From single snapshots of the ocean, scientists can gain valuable insight into what is going on. However, from these single points they must attempt to interpret events and processes that occur based on the data available to them. Obviously, the more data that can be collected to fill in the unknown gaps, the more accurately scientists can interpret the hidden world of the ocean. In this updated version of a popular activity, students learn about the different types of data collection and explore the difference between discrete (snapshots) and
continuous real-time data.

MACOORA Usability Test

By Sage Lichtenwalner

Can web sites and data visualizations be tested? How does one find out how usable they are? In August 2008, a team of COSEE NOW members conducted a web site usability test with a group of fishermen to learn more about the process and how fishermen use real-time ocean data.

Helpdesk: How do I join a workgroup?

COSEE NOW workgroups are a great way to stay in touch with community members that share your interests. To become a member of a workgroup, simply click the “Join Group” button on any group page or the main workgroup list. Additionally, if you post a message in a group’s forum that you are not yet a member of, you will automatically become a member of that group.

Once you join a group, you will start to receive email alerts of all new activity in the group, including forum posts, new members and uploaded documents. You can change these notifications to daily or weekly digests, or you can turn off email notifications alltogether on a group by group basis. Simply look for the email status option near the “Leave Group” button.

Have a question for a future issue, send an email to help@coseenow.net