Community Services

Status Report: May 2011 - October 2011

Linda Miller, Doug Dirks, Jeff Weber

Strategic Focus Areas

Community Services supports the following Unidata funding proposal focus areas:

  1. Broadening participation and expanding community services
    We coordinate with our governing committees to find ways to expand Unidata's community participation. We use our web site, electronic newsletters, and social media to keep community members informed about enhanced data services, software tools, and cyberinfrastructure.
  2. Advancing data services
    We work with government and industry data providers to secure access to data for Unidata community members.
  3. Developing and deploying useful tools
    We promote Unidata tools and software for multi-disciplinary use, with an eye toward finding additional research and educational communities that can benefit from our work.
  4. Enhancing user support services
    We monitor and collaborate with data sources to stay apprised of impending changes and to advocate for the needs of our user community. We provide user workshops, tutorials, and community workshops to help build supportive relationships between community members.
  5. Promoting diversity by expanding opportunities
    We participate in UCAR/NCAR and NSF projects for underrepresnted populations and minority communities (SOARS, AIHEC, outreach to HBCUs). We provide services and tools to facilitate education and research in diverse communities. We work to broaden the Unidata community by participating in student and professional conferences.

Activities Since the Last Status Report

News@Unidata blog

The News@Unidata blog was launched at the beginning of April 2011, with posts appearing regularly, but not on a specific schedule. Some highlights:

Blog readership has been relatively steady over the six months since the blog's introduction. Reader comments to blog articles have been fairly light so far.

Community Outreach and Services

  • Presentation (Towards Open Weather and Climate Services - A Unidata Academic Perspective) by Linda at the 2011 AMS August Community Summer Meeting in Boulder, CO
  • Attended a Wireless Weather Services Forum and a NWS Partners Meeting in June, 2011
  • Continue an active role in the NAWIPS migration to AWIPS II with NWS and NCEP
  • Participating on UCAR's Weather Exhibit Committee
  • Participating in the AMS Committee to Improve Climate Change Communcations (CICCC)
  • Mentored Vanessa Vincente (SOARS protoge) over the summer
  • Mentored Andrew Jensen for the HIRO program
  • Continue to work with the Tribal College Community, met on September 26th with students from University of Central Michigan
  • Accommodated many media requests for interviews regarding, tornado outbreaks, hurricanes, and climate change
  • Perform acts of Wizardry at UCAR's Super Science Saturday
  • Worked with AWIPS program to get a Freedom of Information Action (FOIA) in place for AWIPS II
  • Participating in the 2011 Satellite Direct Readout Conference
  • Presentation on collaboration at the NOAA Network Advisory Meeting
  • Coordinate October 2011 joint Users/Policy committee meeting

Social Media Outreach Activities

  • We have continued to update the Facebook and Twitter feeds
  • We are investigating establishing a Google+ presence
  • We are investigating establishing a LinkedIn presence

Planned Activities

Ongoing Activities

We plan to continue the following activities:

  • NAWIPS migration to AWIPS II and related issues
  • Ongoing development of news articles for publication through News@Unidata
  • Continue to support and contribute to governing committees
  • Seminars
  • Outreach
  • Engagement with professional societies

New Activities

We plan to organize or take part in the following:

  • Triennial workshop planning and coordination
  • Booth at AMS 2012 annual meeting
  • Table at AMS 2012 student conference
  • Activities connected to Unidata's participation in the NSF EarthCube project
  • Planning, support, and input for Unidata's strategic plan

Relevant Metrics

Statistics from the Community pages on the Unidata web site. Comparisons are made with statistics from the previous six-month period.

All Community pages

Most recent six months (April 1, 2011 - September 30, 2011)

  • 45,404 unique pageviews
    (up from 15,411 in previous period)
  • 5.6% of total unique pageviews to site
    (up from 2.2% in previous period)

Very strong absolute and percentage increases, attributable mostly to web site redesign, the introduction of the News@Unidata blog, and interest in this summer's training workshops.

 

Top community pages, April 1, 2011 - September 30, 2011

  1. All blog pages
    News@Unidata blog replaced the monthly e-letter in April 2011 (statistics include pageviews for developers' blog)
    • 26,543 unique pageviews
      (up from 3973 for monthly e-letter)
    • 58% of total community unique pageviews
      (up from 25.8% in previous period)
    Very strong absolute and percentage increases as readers visit the site for more frequent postings compared to the monthly e-letter.
  2. Events pages (www.unidata.ucar.edu/events/)
    Information about training courses and other events
    • 6518 unique pageviews
      (up from 2317 in previous period)
    • 14.3% of total community unique pageviews
      (down from 15.0% in previous period)
    Strong absolute increase, with percentage decrease due to large increase in total community unique pageviews.
  3. About Unidata (www.unidata.ucar.edu/about/)
    Information about Unidata
    • 3845 unique pageviews
      (up from 1547 in previous period)
    • 8.5% of total community unique pageviews
      (down from 10.0% in previous period)
    Strong absolute increase, with percentage decrease due to large increase in total community unique pageviews.
  4. Community pages (www.unidata.ucar.edu/community/)
    Information about Unidata community events and governance
    • 3708 unique pageviews
      (up from 2939 in previous period)
    • 8.2% of total community unique pageviews (down from 19.1% in previous period)
    Small absolute increase, with percentage decrease due to large increase in total community unique pageviews.

Social media statistics, October 1, 2011

  1. # of Twitter followers: 162 (up from 114 in April 2011)
  2. # of Facebook followers: 114 (up from 80 in April 2011)