Bird Island Diary – May 2004
Alex arrives The May diary for Bird Island is written by Alex Cottle and is available in pdf format by clicking the link below. Bird Island Diary – May 2004 […]
I’m a web systems developer working with information systems across the scientific and business functions of the British Antarctic Survey.
I head up the Web & Applications team at BAS. The Web & Applications team are responsible for developing and maintaining web-based systems and applications that support BAS’s outreach activities, administrative and operational functions, as well as provide access to scientific data. We also work closely with other application development groups across BAS including the Mapping and Geographic Information Centre and IT. We also work closely with other centres across NERC to ensure we are sharing what skills and systems we can.
Data Integration
A core focus of the team is providing access to the information stored across a wide breadth of information systems across BAS. This includes access to business systems information and scientific information. At the heart of this is ensuring that information entered into our various information systems is not locked into a black box. We want to unlock this information and ensure that it is usable by a wide variety of applications within BAS. This includes even these staff profiles as they pull information from our internal HR system and integrates with custom entered data!
Software Development Practices
I’m also very interested in providing information and techniques for software development practices across BAS. Our team has worked hard to introduce common software development methodologies and practices to teams across BAS. To that end we’ve been working to open-source much of our work. Our current efforts are on Github British Antarctic Survey – Github We’ll be open-sourcing much more of our work slowly over the next year.
We provide support for getting teams started using Git, SVN and issue tracking workflows.
Alex arrives The May diary for Bird Island is written by Alex Cottle and is available in pdf format by clicking the link below. Bird Island Diary – May 2004 […]
Goodbye to Ben and Nic The April diary for Bird Island is written by Chris Green and is available in pdf format by clicking the link below. Bird Island Diary […]
Where did all the time go? The March diary for Bird Island is written by Ben Phalan and is available in pdf format by clicking the link below. Bird Island […]
Picnics and chicks When you are stuck on an island, size 5km by 1km in the South Atlantic most requirements have a habit of being postponed all too frequently. Necessities […]
Sushi & smoothies Considering the fact that you trip over seals the minute you walk out of the door, you would have thought that ten scats a week is not […]
Bird Island Dorchester November has been a month of endless variety on Bird Island from both science and base life aspects. The most visible change has been the emergence of […]
Birds and big noses October has seen the skies above the island come alive with birds, the beaches with elephant and fur seals, and the steep rocky slopes with Macaroni […]
Skiing and pirates!?! I am going to start with a big `HELLO` to all my family and friends at home or abroad. This month has absolutely flown by. It has […]
Cakes and messages in bottles As I am sitting in my room trying to write this newsletter, an adult male fur seal, having returned from an oceanic trip, is lying […]
A varied month This month we lost a friend and kindred spirit when Kirsty Brown was killed by a leopard seal at Rothera. The sudden loss of someone so young […]
Midwinter The true South Georgia winter weather has now firmly established itself on this wee island in the Southern Ocean. As I write, ensconced within the shelter of base, the […]
Counting birds We spent the first couple of days of May on Bird Island, counting birds believe it or not! The first day was reserved, as is customary on every […]
Comings and goings April has been a month of comings and goings. We have seen the arrival of winter snow and ice, and of the first of our most impressive […]
A last word from Jane After 2½ years here this has been my last full month on Bird Island. I’ll be leaving in April, almost 30 months to the day […]
WANTED – seals, penguins and albatrosses WANTED!! Have you seen this pup, penguin, whale, moth or worm? No sorry we haven’t but we’ll ask our mates! Come on chaps I’m […]
Christmas and new arrivals December is traditionally one of the busiest months here at Bird Island and this year was no exception, both at work and at play. The month […]
Practice emergencies and a real birthday November usually marks the beginning of summer for Bird Island. However, the winter has stubbornly refused to depart and every time we thought the […]
New faces As I am writing these few lines at the end of this October month, spring or summer have yet to arrive. The island is still coated in snow, […]
Spring is in the air Welcome once again to another month at Bird Island. September seems to have brought a considerable amount of change. With winter rapidly heading towards its […]
More sketches I can hardly believe that August has already come and gone. It still feels like it should be sometime back around July. Time has flown, as Bird Island […]
Fur Seals and Festivities Everyone that I had met before my visit to Bird Island told me that I would love this tiny isolated island and it’s wildlife. A visiting […]
First Impressions The peaceful isolation of Bird Island was almost shattered with the arrival of the James Clark Ross (JCR) on the 2nd. But as it turned out the shattering […]