Seagoat Consulting projects
Seagoat Consulting has a great deal of experience in planning and developing strategies and systems that permit the re-use of information in electronic form. We also have considerable experience with professional scientific associations.
We are advocates of structural markup for texts, and properly normalized relational database design. Indeed, the two are conceptually the same thing, and our approach to all forms of information, whether marked text, database fields, or financial data, emphasizes the ability to transmit and re-use information.
We have knowledge of a range of software for managing an information database, with extensive experience in the Unix text processing environment, as well as with Microsoft Windows-based office information products for the PC. We have considerable experience (one hesitates to call it expertise) and success in integrating Unix and Windows applications.
Electronic publishing and planning
American Astronomical Society. Seagoat Consulting began working with the AAS to build their first electronic journal in 1991. Early in that process, we assisted the AAS in developing several long range (2-3 year) plans for the development and financing of this project as well as their overall strategy for electronic publishing. We continued to help the AAS develop strategies and plans for the whole range of electronic publishing services of the Society, and prepared grant proposals for NASA and the NSF. Chris managed the technical team that developed the techniques that are now used in the on-line versions of The Astrophysical Journal and the Astronomical Journal.
AIAA Electronic Initiative. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, with guidance from Seagoat Consulting, in late 1996 developed an ambitious program for information management and re-use, both within the association itself, and for dissemination in an electronic publishing program. We helped the AIAA's Electronic Initiative team articulate goals and objectives, and to create a broad implementation plan and overall budget for a two-year deployment program.
American Statistical Association. In mid 2000, Seagoat Consulting helped the publications director develop a request for proposals for the creation of electronic journal products to accompany their existing print journals. We also attended vendor presentations with the publications committee, and offered advisory support during the committee's deliberations.
GeoScienceWorld. Seagoat Consulting guided GSW's Technical Evaluation Committee assessment of technological alternatives in early 2003. We developed agendas and wrote minutes, led conference calls, and prepared a white paper for the GSW Steering Committee. At a later time, we assisted Steering Committee and AGI personnel in the vendor selection process.
OSA InfoBase. In early 1996, Seagoat Consulting worked in close cooperation with staff at the Optical Society of America to prepare a comprehensive requirements analysis document and request for proposals for the OSA's on-line information presence, which was called the InfoBase. The resulting requirements document addressed issues of organizational history, structure and technology. It detailed the underlying property and characteristics of the proposed system as well as its functions, outcomes and expected products. The request for proposals included all of the procedural considerations for submissions as well as a detailed outline of the proposal components, evaluation criteria and a requirements synopisis based on the requirements analysis document.
Portico. Portico is a digital archiving enterprise committed to the preservation of electronic journals. Seagoat Consulting participated in strategic technical management and analysis from 2003 through 2005. Tasks included design of a repository architecture, assessment of content management alternatives, and metadata analysis.
Seismological Society of America. Beginning in 1997, Seagoat Consulting provided on-going advice and assistance to the SSA as they pursued their electronic publishing program. The Society's flagship journal, the Bulletin of the SSA, is now produced and archived in SGML/XML. It is available online as part of the GeoScienceWorld aggregation. The journal’s digital preservation is ensured by the Society’s participation in Portico.
Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. Seagoat Consulting assisted society management and committee personnel in a day-long retreat in January 1998 to make near-term decisions about sensible online trial products, and to introduce broader network publishing concerns into their long-term discussions.
The University of Chicago Press. Seagoat Consulting worked with the Press, who published the AAS research journals, during the R&D that led to the online version of The Astrophysical Journal. We performed independent market research and analysis for search engines and web-based peer review systems. We also assisted in the development of the Press' in-house peer review system, and a book digitization project called Bibliovault.
University of Illinois DLI. Seagoat Consulting was part of the group of publisher partners providing advice and oversight for the Digital Library Initiative at the University of Illinois and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.
Meeting abstract projects
American Astronomical Society. Seagoat Consulting began working with the AAS meeting abstracts process in December 1991, and developed a new abstract system over several months. It was operational for the receipt of electronic abstracts in April 1992. The system included an author markup package (based loosely on AASTeX) so that material submitted electronically by authors can be re-used automatically.
American Physical Society. Seagoat Consulting was retained by the APS to assist in the automation of their meeting abstract process in September 1994. The system was deployed in December 1994.
Other abstract projects. Seagoat Consulting has given advice and assistance to a number of other organizations as they developed electronic meeting abstracts. They include the American Geophysical Union, the American Institute of Physics, and the Acoustical Society of America.
Other information management projects
AASTeX markup package. In 1988, Chris developed the AASTeX package for the preparation of manuscripts to be submitted to astronomical journals. AASTeX comprises a logical markup system that permits author-prepared manuscripts to be accepted electronically and re-used automatically in the production process.
Conference Proceedings of the ASP. Chris wrote an author-prepared package for manuscripts destined for volumes of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's conference proceedings series in 1991. We used this package and a system for managing electronic manuscripts in the production of the first ADASS volume. These mechanisms have been used since to facilitate the production of other ASP proceedings volumes as well as on-line versions of some of the ADASS volumes.
Online observatory proposal system. In early 1994, Seagoat Consulting worked with staff members at the National Optical Astronomy Observatories to devise a mechanism for the electronic submission and management of observing proposals. We developed an electronic template file, using the LaTeX markup language, for researchers to use when writing their proposal, as well as a system for receiving the proposals by email at the Observatory, and for helping staff manage them.