fishbase lessons learned rainer froese ifm-geomar december 2004
TRANSCRIPT
Overview
• What is FishBase• Some statistics on usage• Lessons learned• Future plans
Some Statistics
What is not used is useless
With modern web statistic software there is no excuse
for not knowning your users
FishBase Usage over Time
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
A 98 A 99 A 00 A 01 A 02 A 03 A 04 A 05Years (August)
Hits
(mill
ions
)
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
Use
r se
ssio
ns (t
hous
ands
)
Information Downloaded from FishBase
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
A 98 A 99 A 00 A 01 A 02 A 03 A 04 A 05
Years (August)
Ban
dwid
th (G
B)
FishBase Usage by Developing Countries
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Years (July)
DC
Hits
(Mill
ions
)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Per
cent
DC
Hits
Percent of all Hits
DC Hits
FishBase Users by Continent
North America
Europe
Asia
South America
Africa
Australia
Oceania
Based on 2122 entries in the FishBase Guestbook , June 2004
FishBase Usage Compared with Internet Usage by Country, in 2001
0.0001
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100
Internet Users (% of all Users)
Fish
Bas
e S
essi
ons
(% o
f all
Ses
sion
s)
USA
Qatar
Fr Polynesia
Brunei
Japan
China
South Korea
Russia
Taiwan
India
Lebanon
Venezuela
0.0001
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100Internet usage by country (%)
Fish
Bas
e us
age
by c
ount
ry (%
)(J
uly
2004
)USA
China
Greece
Luxembourg
Saudi Arabia
Peru
Pakistan
Ghana
Belarus
Cuba
South Korea
Russia
BrazilAustralia
JapanGermany
PNG
India
Kenya
FishBase Web Users
Individuals
Private sector
Universities
Governments
NGOs
Museums
Int. Research Centres
Based on 2122 entries in the FishBase Guestbook, June 2004
FishBase Web Usage by Topic May-July 2003
Common Names
Scientific Names
Direct Links
Species Summaries
Photos
Fish Quiz
Specialist Topics
Based on hits by directory on CGNET server
Common names
Scientific names
Direct links
Species summaries
Photos
Fish Quiz
Specialist topics
Based on AW Hits by directory on Kiel server
FishBase Usage by Topic July 2004
Frequency of FishBase Usage by Topic
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Genetics
Diseases
FishQuiz
Reproduction
Maps
FB book
Physiology
Population dynamics
Trophic ecology
Identification
LarvalBase
Scientific Names
Museum collections
Eschmeyer
Glossary
References
Country information
Photos
Common Names
Species Summaries
Percent of total page views (July 2004)
About 10,000 visitors per month
Under The Hood
• FishBase Structure
Under The Hood
• FishBase Structure• From DataEase to MS Access to MySQL
to ???• From HTML to Cold Fusion to PHP to
CMS to ???• 5 mirrors around the world• www.ZoneEdit.com for load-balancing
General Principles• Keep it simple• Yes-Attitude• Be opportunistic• Give more credit than was expected• Deal with errors
– Expose data– Invite, accept and act on criticism– Compare data– Use your data
Design Principles
• Do not over-normalize• Avoid (hide) codes• Dedicated fields vs free-text fields• `Science and Data first´ approach• Transparency (reference, entered, modified, date)
• Strategic decisions about data (comparative advantage, importance, future maintenance)
Future Plans
• Complete coverage and content• Improve mapping• Add more analytical tools• Move to mobile devices• Do FishBase for all aquatic species?
Thanks to the FishBase Team
Thanks to the FishBase Consortium
Thanks to our Donors
Thanks for Listening
Questions?