I’ve been a data geek for quite some time. Right now you cannot see it on my site so much because I have not been explicit about it. However, I will be filling in how data and I have been happily intertwined over the years.

At UAF in 1993 I worked for Administrative Services as a Total Quality Management (TQM) Coordinator. We, Melody Erickson and I, worked with 17 teams over two years. During the first part we co-taught and lead different units through TQM practices. During the latter part I lead units on my own… but it all had to do with IDEAS and data collection to make positive changes.

Then there were years that I used market research for information to assist in planning marketing campaigns as well as growing clientele in Alaska for Internet Alaska, Inc. and American Tire & Auto, Inc.

After a period of being somewhat data free I knew I had to return to the fold. This was when I got BACK into data in a BIG WAY. In 2007 I began work with the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at UAF working as a web designer and programmer (at first) for the Alask Ocean Observing Systems.

Talk about data! It was all about building an interface to best show what was happening in the surrounding waters. We were showcasing research and current situations. As an offshoot of my working with SFOS I had the opportunity to work with several scientists in the Institute of Marine Science at UAF to

• Work on virtual servers to support the Arctic Ocean Biodiversity group’s data management needs.
• Collect, archive, run/edit Python scripts to perform data ETL (extract, transfer, load) from various products (Excel, CSV, Access) into Postgres SQL for national (OBIS/GBIF) database harvest.
• Clean up metadata XML. Documentation development. Program in PHP, Python as needed to extract, transform and load data (ETL).

I know. I know! It is exciting!

More to come…