It has been an exiting year for Caden: We’ve got to know our community better, and we finished the foundation for what we want to provide eventually. Although there is no polished end product yet, there are welldefined intermediate milestone achieved, and there is already something that you can give a try.
Our vision is to let electronic lab notebooks (ELNs) and other local databases of scientific output talk to each other. The year 2021 convinced us that this is a realistic goal, even though we depend on ELN developers to implement our protocol. With SciMesh, we gave the data exchange a framework, hopefully finding the sweet spot between flexibility and interoperability. This needs to become more concrete in 2022, and of course, be actually brought to life in ELN software. And with JuliaBase, we have a reference implementation that is able to export all of its data in a rich, highly structured knowledge graph.
However, the most unsuccessful aspect in Caden in 2021 was the lack of community participation. It is vitally important that you, the scientist – the user of what we wish to create – get in touch with us! Visit SciMesh’s website and send comments by email. We would be very happy to discuss SciMesh with some of you in an online meeting. And, in case you are an IT-savvy, install our ELN prototype and kick the tyres. You may submit everything you observe in GitHub issues, or share it with us in an online meeting.
[Caden has 3 items on his scientific dissemination list 2021]