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# Re: EW Community Center

- To: earthw-list@nmt.edu
- Subject: Re: EW Community Center
- From: tlmurray@usgs.gov
- Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2000 10:15:00 -0700
- Cc: jpower@usgs.gov, jnmarso@usgs.gov

    I too have been disappointed by the lack of connection among earthworm
    community users and developers.  I have developed quite a few modules,
    especially for integrating non-seismic data streams into the earthworm
    system. Some might achieve wide-spread use.  For example, archiving
    continuous waveform data still seems to be an issue. So I wrote a simple
    module for sending triglist2k messages to trig2disk at user-specified
    intervals to produce sequential data files containing all the desired trace
    data.  Though probably not the enterprise level solution that some network
    operators require, it is perfectly suited for smaller operators such as I
    work with.

    But I am not sure what to do with this module or the others.  Wait until
    the formal release of a USGS Open-File Report describing them? The
    open-source proponents seem to push a test-it-in-battle approach, much more
    in keeping with my preferred style.  Does the fact they are written in
    Visual Basic and thus NT-specific make a difference?  I don't know.  I was
    expecting to funnel everything through the staff in Golden, but they are
    swamped with their own set of tasks.  Until I saw this latest exchange, I
    did not even know others shared my concerns about such issues.  Though
    unsuited to undertake a major role with the entire Earthworm community, I
    do have a certain responsibility to the users I work with.  My approach is
    perhaps instructive of what will increasingly occur unless some strong
    leadership in the Earthworm community either appears on its own or is paid
    to appear.

    I am in a somewhat unique position among Earthworm users.  In my role
    working with overseas volcano observatories, I am setting up numerous
    Earthworm boxes around the Pacific rim, especially Latin America.  In
    addition to monitoring volcanoes, the observatories typically run their
    country's national seismic network.  My guess is that within 3 years
    Earthworm boxes will be integral to every national seismic net in North and
    South America to as far south as at least Ecuador and possibly all the way
    to Tierra del Fuego.

    As part of this effort, I want to see these groups become part of an active
    user community.  To assist in this end, Jeff Marso (who is working with me
    on this project), put together a new listserver,
    http://tlaloc.wr.usgs.gov/mailman/listinfo/glowworm  We opted to produce a
    new one because the current Earthworm listserver appeared (1) moribund  (at
    the time) and (2) several generations old. He used GNU's Mailman :
    http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman.html We are hoping it will
    become the focal point of our support efforts as it provides a nice user
    interface, message threading, and all the normal benefits of a listserver.

    There is no content yet.  Our plan is to announce it and begin using it
    during an install in Ecuador starting next week.  By using it as the
    primary method of obtaining support from us, we hope that our colleagues
    will become accustomed to using it and eventually develop the community as
    they start to peek under the hood and can help each other.  It is also to
    be truly bilingual - messages in Spanish or English or anything in between
    will be welcome.  We may be naive in this approach, but at least it's a
    strategy of some sort.

    I apologize to the current listserver administrator as this is not to be
    taken as knock at you. The fact that no one was using the site drove our
    decision to go forward with one of our own as just being simpler.  In
    hindsight, we should have checked in with you anyway.  We did let Alex know
    of our plan.  But it may not be bad to have a additional listserver from
    the current one - it will be addressing a different audience.  We are
    flexible and it still early enough to change paths.  But I can't give up
    the newer generation's features as I need to entice people into using it.
    Whether this is a splintering of or enhancement to the Earthworm community
    is open to discussion.

    A final comment - I am pushing Earthworm technology into the non-seismic
    areas that volcano monitoring involves: strain, geodetic, chemical,
    hydrologic, etc.  A project at Mt. Rainier involves no seismic data
    whatsoever. I see it is an easy-to-use method for real-time geophysical
    data collection and distribution and a way to integrate all the different
    data streams together.  It's quite possible that Earthworm could take off
    in a much larger community than it now serves.

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