In addition, the original researchers are frequently no longer on-site and some are deceased. Metadata database structure. We have used standardized metadata structures that are identical for every database. We can flag entries where trees changed species, shrank dramatically, grew dramatically, or came back to life after being dead for several years. Hardware, software, connectivity, and personnel Hardware decisions need to be considered in conjunction with software when assessing connectivity and making personnel decisions.
Personnel are critical to the success of the whole operation.
This equates to over 1300 user units. We have been extremely fortunate to hire individuals who are both computer-savvy, as well as interested in science. This has been a winning combination. Disciplinary interests of personnel include soils, statistics, entomology, GIS, remote-sensing, and computer science. As a point of reference, from 1994 to 1995, the Novell LAN expanded from 180 to 280 PCs and more than tripled the amount of disk space from 5.8 Gb to 18.2 Gb.