Seeding the database

The online data visualization prototype is in the works and nearing completion. We are gearing up for tests in Falmouth, Sanford, Kennebunk....

To give the prototype tests some oomph, we have seeded it with 30 data records: upland species from the Invasive Plant Atlas of New England (IPANE), freshwater aquatic species from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, and coastal species from MIT Sea Grant Center for Coastal Resources rapid assessment surveys.

Great news - IPANE openly shares their data from citizen scientists and professional scientists! Sarah Treanor of IPANE writes:
Thank you for your interest in the IPANE program. In terms of our data, it is all freely available on the web either in table or map format: http://nbii-nin.ciesin.columbia.edu/ipane/data.htm. We encourage its use to the public at large. If you prefer the data to be in tabular form, you can highlight the whole page and paste it into excel.

In using the data, we only ask that the data be cited to IPANE. If it is to be used in any kind of publication, the bottom of the IPANE home page has specific citation information:
http://nbii-nin.ciesin.columbia.edu/ipane/index.htm.

Prototype data will ultimately be purged from the database. Should we decide that seeding is worthwhile, we'll seek out the best data from the best sources and get the best permissions.