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the wonders The following interview occured on December 8, 1997 via an Internet Chat room. David Lankes (lankes), the director of the Virtual Reference Desk project, interviewed Jamie Dronen (Dronen), the primary Research Assistant for the VolcanoWorld Web site and its This is the raw transcript...it has not been edited in any way (other than formatting). **** lankes connected at: Mon Dec 8 97 9:36:50 **** **** lankes disconnected at: Mon Dec 8 97 9:41:41 **** ********** Everyone has logged out ********** **** lankes connected at: Mon Dec 8 97 9:44:55 **** **** lankes disconnected at: Mon Dec 8 97 10:02:49 **** ********** Everyone has logged out ********** **** lankes connected at: Mon Dec 8 97 10:03:20 **** **** Dronen connected at: Mon Dec 8 97 10:07:30 **** lankes**Hello...please be aware this is being logged. lankes**The transcript will be used by me to create a description of the Ask a Volcanologist service, and you can determine how widely it will be distributed. lankes**I'm going to be asking you about your service, while I have some general areas of conversation, please feel free to add, correct or make observations at anytime, the point is to lankes**Ok, so let's get right to it, could you please identify yourself, and your role in Ask Dronen**I am Jamie Dronen, and I am the primary Research Assistant for the VolcanoWorld Dronen**I am responsible to see that the Ask-A-Volcanologist Dronen**questions get distributed to the correct people, Dronen**that they get answered in an effecient manner, Dronen**and that they get posted on our website. lankes**Would you say you are involved in both the day to day operations as well as the longer term planning/vision making process for the service? Dronen**That's correct, although the day to day operations is much more work (of course). lankes**Great, could you tell me what kind of information you attempt to gather from/about your Dronen**For this particular part of VolcanoWorld, we ask for very little information. In fact, they can submit questions without telling us anything. However, Dronen**we do ask for their name and email address. Without the email address it is very hard to get a response to them! Interestingly enough, Dronen**most people offer more information than we ask for. lankes**So besides the questions, do you try to get other user information, web logs or focus Dronen**We used to keep extensive web logs, but as time went on they began to use up more and more of our system reources and they even slowed down our server. Now we only get limited Dronen**we keep track of IP addresses, and where they visit within our site. lankes**So what can you tell me about the users of your service? Dronen**I can say that from the information most people give us, a majority of our users fall Dronen**Nearly all are associated with educational institutions in some way. Dronen**who are doing internet projects within their classes. lankes**And this information is derived solely from the questions being asked? Dronen**Some are also graduate and undergraduate level at universities. Dronen**This information is usually contained within the question they are asking us! lankes**How do you track questions...i.e., determine trends in the questions...or do you do Dronen**For example, someone will say, "Hi, I am so and so, and here is a little about Dronen**We try to track the questions, and here is how: Dronen**a lot of questions are easily recognized as repeats, for example Dronen**"how hot is lava" comes every day! Dronen**What we try to do, is take the repeats, and put them in a FAQ type section of our Dronen**Then, we try to get the users to go to this section before they submit thier question. Dronen**However, this usually doesn't work. lankes**Who determines if the question is a repeat...and how? Dronen**We have even had to make the online form more difficult to get to to try and avoid Dronen**The volcanologist determines if it is a repeat, usually just from memory. It is pretty Dronen**how they can remember all the questions they have already answered. Dronen**If it is a repeat, the volcanologist will usually say so, and then give the web address to where they can go for the answer. lankes**Are there any other ways you gather information on users and user trends (like demographics) other than the incoming questions? Dronen**Not on a continuous basis. However, there have been times where we have been able to do Dronen**we had recently a VolcanoQuiz, where users who scored a perfect quiz won prizes. For this, we asked for more information, such as asddress, age, that type of thing. lankes**How about gathering information or determining trends in other Internet services...do you look at other sites when building or maintaining your own? Dronen**Yes, there are many reasons we would look at other sites. Dronen**One is that we keep up with current technology, we try to see what others are doing and then use this as a basis for our site. Dronen**As an example, we do not want to use technologies on our pages which only a small percent of the users will be able to see. Dronen**...or use.one example of this is chat servers. Dronen**Java chat servers are great, but many, especially in the educational fields, do not have equipment that can handle it well. lankes**DO you determine this from looking at other services or looking at your users? Dronen**Another example is streaming audio and video. Dronen**Its a little of both. Since we know where most of our users come from (K-12) and we have a pretty good idea what kind of equipment Dronen**these places have...we can usually make good judgements. Ocassionally we don't and then lankes**How do you have a pretty good idea? And what mechanism do users let you know? Dronen**But, we can use other web sites to determine, for example, if we are lagging behind in Dronen**Well, most of our development team (which is spread across the world) have families with children, they tend to know what is available to the students. lankes**So other sites let you know the capabilities while your users let you know the Dronen**Users let us know by filling out comment and ask0-a-volc forms (and somtimes the Dronen**Yes, I think what you said is correct. lankes**How do you find capabilities at other sites...do you surf the web, or have some systems Dronen**Well, I for example, am also the primary Research Assistant for another site. So my whole day is spent doing web development. I spend aobut 5 - 6 hours a day on the internet. Thi Dronen**I am pretty typical of our team, so together we are able to asses the current lankes**So, aside from technical capabilities are there other things you look for at other Dronen**yes, we also use other Internet sites for some content development. lankes**Aside from looking at other Internet sites, are there other mechanisms or mediums you use to determine trends or new capabilities in Internet applications? Dronen**Yes. Probably the next largest mechanism is reading. We receive many magazines which Dronen**devoted to the Internet and its development. lankes**Any titles that are particularly good? Dronen**These generally give us a good idea of what others are doing, and what others Dronen**find successfull and useful. lankes**Any titles that are particularly good? Dronen**One called WebWeek, another is Webmaster. Also, Internet World, PCWeek and PC World. lankes**Which is more useful in making decisions aobut changing the service...user questions or lankes**Let me re-phrase that, when you sit down and are deciding what to do with the Dronen**PCWeek is good for software developments. lankes**which do you consider more imprtant im making the decision...the input you get from you users through questions, or new capabilities in software that you found out about through Dronen**Ultimately, the decision is based on user feedback, and usually the ideas come from lankes**Ok, so you get ideas from surfing...but it's the users that have the final say? Dronen**yeah, because if something is a complete flop (ie, no one can use it or everyone hates lankes**Do you pay much attention to infrastructure issues, like hardware, wiring, or new Dronen**Yes, that is a critical concern of our right now because we are currently pushing the limit of our hardware/and our wiring. We weill need to make some serius changes soon. however, Dronen**we have some people on our team, who know more about that than others, and they advise lankes**Do you have "divisions" in your staff...like a systems group for example? Dronen**Sort of. They are part of a larger organization. They do not exist solely for our benefit, but are at our disposal when we need them. lankes**Could you explain the relationship between Ask a Volcanologist and the "larger Dronen**Ask-A-Volcanologist was developed from a grant given to the Space Studies Department, at UND Aerospace (University of North Dakota). Dronen**The larger organization is UND Aerospace, which Dronen**houses the Scientific Computing Center. Dronen**this center is the one that provides for most of our Hardware/Network needs. lankes**what is the relationship between Ask a Volcanologist and Volcano World? Dronen**Ask-A-Volcanologiest is one section of the VolcanoWorld website. lankes**SO do you work on Volcano world, or Ask a Volcanologist or both (are they the same Dronen**Well, really they are the same thing, funded from the same grant. VolcanoWorld existed first, and Ask A volc. was developem Dronen**developed to prvide users with a Better connection to the scientists Dronen**(rather than the computer folks doing the development). lankes**Does NASA have much say in how the service is run? Dronen**They used to have more than they do now. Basically, were wrote the proposal, were givin Dronen**report monthly to them. Their biggest conern is getting Earth System Science type data lankes**How do you determine what they want/need? Dronen**Through a scientist at NASA, who we keep in touch with on a normal basis. lankes**Through e-mail...phone calls, meetings? Dronen**Mostly email...and sometimes conference calls. lankes**How about UND? Do they have much aof a role in decisions about the service, or input Dronen**They do not play much of a role in decision making for the service, but I am sure if they demanded some thype of role they would get it. So far this has not happened. lankes**Are there other factors aside from the Internet and your own staff that play a role in determining how the service is run...do you follow legislation for example? Dronen**That's a tough question. Personally, I do follow some legislation but only because I am interested in this. It really doesn't have much affect on teh service. I am not sure though, others on the staff might disagree. lankes**Are there other sources of ideas/limits you look to...the scientific community? Other Dronen**Apart from NASA, magazines, and the Internet, not really. Except of course other volcanolgists. Even amature volcanologists. They also help to privide us with content. lankes**How do you gather their input? Dronen**Two ways, really. One, we simply ask for it on our web pages and then give options for Dronen**throught networking/word of mouth. Scientific communities seem to have endless lankes**How do you get ideas from staff itself...do you have meetings, brainstorming session? Dronen**Most of our staff are not located in the same place (except for the computer guys), so meetings do not happend that often. Most of the ideas come from one of two places. Dronen**First, our original goal was to have more information than anyone else Dronen**about volcanoes in one place. Dronen** This provides us with a lifetime supply of work! Second, from questions submitted Dronen**someone might write in a question about a volcano they live by, and if we do not have information already online on this volcano, we will make it a pioont to put i t on the list of lankes**So how do you communicate amoung yourselves? lankes**So if one of the staff members has an idea, e-mail is exchanged? Dronen**I have never met (in person) half of our team! Dronen**Yes, email is usually exchanged within the list of decision makers. lankes**SO who is the "team" and the decision makers? Dronen**Until someone makes the final decision... lankes**And who makes the final decision? Dronen**What do you mean by "who is"? lankes**How many people are working on their project, and in what capacity? Dronen**Generally speaking, we have four volcanologist. Dronen**One of these four is the Principal Investigator. Dronen**And I am the Research Assistant. Dronen**Then there are varying computer programmers. Generally 2 - 4 of them. lankes**Are the volcanologists decision makers? Dronen**Then the hardware/network folks from the Scientific Computing Center which we talked lankes**Are the volcanologists decision makers? Dronen**Final decisions are made by the Principal Investigator, one of the volcanologists. lankes**Do the volcanologists answer all the questions? Dronen**Then, the tree others and myself are part of the decision making process. lankes**Do the volcanologists answer all the questions? Dronen**Yes, the volcanologists answer all questions. Dronen**Currently they are, but there have been times when they donated months of their time. lankes**So how are the questions themselves answered...what is that process? Dronen**Questions are distributed to the volcanologist using certain rules. These question are Dronen**The volcanologist answers the question using a reply, so the "asker" gets the response Dronen**Rules vary according to current workload of each volcanologist. For example, right now Dronen**gets 4 days of questions, the second get 2 and the last gets one. lankes**Except you said there were four volcanologists. Dronen**Oh, sorry. The PI gets all questions just for reference, but in general doesn't answer lankes**Oh, do you have software to gather and distribute the questions, or is all of this done Dronen**Each volcanologist can use whatever email software they want. The distribution happens on our end and is done through software our programmers have devellped. lankes**can you describe the custom software? Dronen**Sure, it is nothing special acually. It is a simple program, written in PERL for UNIX which just on the day s we specify changes the recipient of the ask a volcanologist questions lankes**So there is no triage per say, all incoming questions go from a web form to the PI (who generally doesn't answer) and the volcanologist "on call"? lankes**And the volcanologist replies and that is sent to the user and back to whom at the Dronen**It is also sent back to me, to make sure that it goes online for future reference by lankes**All content response go online? lankes**Are there policies in how questions will be answered? Dronen**Do you mean the content of the response, or something else? lankes**Do you do any training for example in what makes up a good response? Or have some document that guides the volcanologists in creating his/her responses? Dronen**Each volcanologist is basically free to answer the question however he sees fit. Usually this could include a URL for further reference. lankes**DO you have any other policies...for example how to handle out of scope questions, or Dronen**If out of scope questions mean not related to volcanoes, we will usually point them to the Internet to get them started on research. We often try and get the users to get used to the idea of doing some research themselves. Dronen**Sometimes we get too many questions, adn it might take a little longer to answer them, lankes**But this type of response, and the amount of effort spent in answering it, is up to the volcanologist who receives the question? Dronen**Yes, completely up to the volcanologist. lankes**You mentioned before that you are pushing your existing server to it's limits, what technology do you use to run the service? lankes**Do you provide hardware to the volcanologists? Dronen**The biggest factor in "pusing the limits" is the number of hits we receive on our Dronen**Hardware of the volcanologists was not provided by us. Dronen**We expect to have 1 million visitors this year. This is not hits. We get about lankes**So this includes hits on the archives, the web form to ask questions and what else? What services do you offer to users? Dronen**We have over 9100 documents online for our visitors. Most of it is information about volcanoes. We provide images, text, videos, sounds, etc... Dronen**Soon, we want to start a new service. Dronen**This will be the LIVE ask a volcanologist. Dronen**We will allow users to ask question via chat similar to this, then stream the volcanologists voice out live over the internet. lankes**How do you decide to offer this service? Dronen**We wanted to offer something else for our users. Something that made them feel closer to the scientists working t with the data. Dronen**This is a good way to do that. lankes**SO the idea came from within the project...you new the capability was there from surfing the web, and you checked that you users could access the information? Dronen**Yes, from within. One of the other projects I work on works with live audio on a daily basis. I think the idea come from there. lankes**So are there any rules or policies or procedures in place to take an idea from first thought to implementation, or is it informal? Dronen**It is generally pretty informal. Ideas are just expressed to the rest of the volcanologists, everyone gets their opinions. PI gets final decision. lankes**What other means do you have of getting information out to your users, you mentioned the web site, the Q&A service, and the coming LIVE service, anything else? Dronen**We also have an email listserv. It is for current eruptions. As volcanic eruptions take place, we send this info out right away, since it is a current event. This information gets sent to anyone who subscribes to our service. lankes**Any other Internet or non-Internet means of disseminating information? Dronen**we are somtimes asked, but currently we have no non-internet means of disseminating lankes**What are the plans for the service in the future? Dronen**More visitors to our website; info on EVERY volcano known to man (we currently list Dronen**We also hope to make our information more easily accessible in the future. Dronen**Better navigational utilities for our website. lankes**Anything else I should know about how the service operates? Dronen**Not that I can think of. I think we covered all important aspects. lankes**Just to let you know I'll be taking this information and other information (like your web site) and building a description. I'll ask you to review what I come up with and make sure it meets your expectations. I may have some follow-up e-mail questions once I begine that lankes**Can I share this transcript with others? lankes**Are there any questions I can answer for you? lankes**Thanks again for all your time, you have an excellent service. Dronen**Sorry I was late this morning! **** lankes disconnected at: Mon Dec 8 97 11:54:24 **** **** Dronen disconnected at: Mon Dec 8 97 11:54:42 **** ********** Everyone has logged out ********** Bibliography:

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