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DATA QUALITY CHAMPIONS
In 2002, ISIS started its Data Quality Campaign to improve the accuracy of animal and population data in records in the ISIS system.
To assist our members in assessing their data quality, ISIS provides three data quality indicators. These indicators are visible when staff at your institution logs on to the ISIS Web site (www.isis.org). (Your institution’s data scores are shown only to your institution.)
Overall, members have increased the accuracy of their records almost 20% in the last year! A complete list of the top 5% of institutions is available here.
Congratulations to these members! We all really appreciate your hard work!
Because member records are inter-dependent, keeping your data up-to-date and complete helps all members maintain excellent data quality. This will be especially important as we prepare to migrate the data in our current system to ZIMS.
ZIMS DATA STANDARDS MEETING
Future software users are now working hard to determine the necessary data standards for each type of information that will be used in the Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS) (i.e., when software users input the sex of an animal, data standards determine the choices users will have to describe that animal’s sex). We have already held workshops for this purpose in Perth, Australia and Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Seventy participants attended the most recent data standards workshop in Rotterdam, Netherlands. In addition to many zoological experts, ISIS invited experts in veterinary, museum and cryobank data standards; an epidemiologist and a veterinary representative from the US Centers for Disease Control. (The EU is opening a similar center in Stockholm, but it is not yet staffed.)
This workshop produced draft versions of many of the data standards that will be used in the ZIMS application. We will hold a final data standards workshop in Orlando, Florida USA 16-20 May.
Participants at Rotterdam data standards meeting
PROCESS FOR ESTABLISHING DATA STANDARDS FOR ZIMS
As a cooperative profession, we need to communicate through different languages, time zones, zoo and aquarium operations and cultures. The collaborative development of data standards for ZIMS will promote the efficient sharing of information in a common language. Modern data standards will promote productivity in use and reading of information, facilitate data sharing and improve the quality of information in the system.
Traditionally data standards have been developed by regional zoo organizations and other zoo professional organizations. As a community, we have also adopted standards used by other organizations, businesses and industries.
As we are developing ZIMS, we not only need to incorporate all the existing knowledge, but also investigate and develop standards for data that are new to ZIMS or have not previously had a rigorous definition. Through Internet discussion forums and ZIMS Data Standards Workshops, ISIS is facilitating a global process of consensus building to create data standards. For a more in-depth look at the data standards process, click here
WORKING WITH OUR ZIMS VENDOR CGI
In addition to the meetings held around the world with future ZIMS users, ISIS staff and ZIMS Core Team members have worked extensively with our vendor CGI to assure their understanding of our community’s needs for the system. Recently, a group of about 20 ISIS staff and future ZIMS users held an intensive five-day workshop with CGI staff in Toronto, Canada to review the broad functional specifications of the system.
Now, CGI will finalize the system’s architecture. ISIS, IADISC and other volunteers will continue working closely with CGI as they begin to develop the system. We plan to have our first working version of ZIMS by the end of the year.
ZIMS PROJECT VOLUNTEERS
from IADISC Chair Sue Dubois (Disney’s Animal Kingdom/The Living Seas)
We recently completed the last round of reviews on the ZIMS Business Use Cases. (The use cases are technical documents detailing the many core and veterinary business processes that we want ZIMS to support.) More than 1,000 pages drafted in five JAD sessions* were reviewed several times by subject matter experts (SMEs) around the world. Even though the task was huge and complex we got an amazing amount of feedback from the community.
As Chair of IADISC, I would like to personally thank the many dedicated SMEs that took the time from their hectic schedules and used personal time to contribute their knowledge to this process.
Several individuals deserve extra special recognition for their extraordinary efforts to keep us on track, communicate with SMEs and meet deadlines. Kevin Johnson (Australasian Regional Association of Zoological Parks and Aquaria (ARAZPA) and John Inkson (Taronga Zoo) did a terrific job building zimsforum – a user-friendly web site for discussions.
Frands Carlsen (Copenhagen Zoo) and Duncan Bolton (European Association of Zoos & Aquaria (EAZA) also put in many, many hours gathering feedback from our EAZA stakeholders, compiling documentation, and serving as IADISC champions. Because of Nilda Ferrer's (Wildlife Conservation Society) endless stream of emails and phone calls to champion SMEs in the American Zoos & Aquarium Association (AZA) region, we were able to meet our deadlines.
I'm convinced that Becky Bryning (Zoological Society of San Diego) never sleeps and her incredible attention to detail has been invaluable to the task of documenting business processes.
I know all of these people put in a lot of personal time on this project since they are answering emails at all hours of the day AND night! Their dedication and commitment is unquestionable. The largely volunteer contributions by many people on IADISC, regional ADISC’s, the ZIMS Team, ISIS and our general community of SMEs are invaluable to the success of the ZIMS Project.
THANKS!
*Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions are design workshops that were held around the world to gather input from zoo and aquarium experts.
ZIMS FUNCTIONALITY
In each issue of ISIS News, we will describe some of the new functionality that will be offered to our membership through the ZIMS application.
Data collecting that will benefit studbook keepers
ZIMS will offer our community a new way to share animal records. Data will be extensively checked for consistency as it is entered into the system and used (rather than waiting until data is submitted, and then linked).
ZIMS will have all of the data quality validation that is currently offered by the ISIS Single Population Analysis & Records Keeping System (SPARKS) software and more as recommended by the community. We plan to migrate all current SPARKS data into ZIMS.
ZIMS will still allow studbook keepers to collect, maintain and supervise their data. And, ZIMS will highlight any differences between institution and studbook data immediately, allowing updates so that data will always be current. With ZIMS, 85% of data collecting should be done for studbook keepers, allowing them to focus on data quality and analysis.
ZIMS PROJECT DEVELOPMENT SUMMARY
The ZIMS Project is on-time and on-budget. As of 30 April 2005 we will be half-way through our two-year ZIMS development plan. We are currently in the detailed part of the design phase – with a lot more work ahead involving users worldwide saying exactly what they want ZIMS to do. Actual construction will occur during the next seven months. We should have a working prototype by December 2005.
ZIMS PROJECT FUNDING SUMMARY
We are just past the half-way mark in committed funds for the project. We have commitments for US $5.5 million of a total US $10 million needed. More than 140 zoos and aquariums have pledged more than US $4 million (Thank you!).
Pledges are still coming in! We continue to invite other members of the global zoo and aquarium community to contribute to the ZIMS Project and are working on approaches to foundations, corporations and governments to raise the remaining US $4.5 million needed. We welcome your ideas, contacts – and of course, any other help you can offer!
Latest pledge: Dreamworld Pty Ltd., Australia
ISIS technical update: What does ISIS support do?
Elisabeth, Aasim, Aaron, Laurie, Kevin and Nate – ISIS technical support staff – are here to help our members who have questions about ISIS software. Our support staff often helps users with their questions through one-on-one phone calls – or even in person.
In addition, the staff has created and maintains extensive self-help Web pages that walk users through technical questions. These pages are available on the ISIS Web site.
But that’s not all! Our support staff is also very involved in consulting with our software developers. Ideas for making the programs more user-friendly often come about through support staff consultation.
After all of that, the staff finds time to have fun. Users often compliment the staff. One user wrote, “I think ISIS has the only tech support in the computer world that’s actually pleasant to use.”
Elisabeth, Aasim and Aaron can be reached in the ISIS central offices, Laurie helps with SPARKS and studbook support and can be reached at laurie@isis.org and Kevin is located in our Australian office.
Thanks Elisabeth, Aasim, Aaron, Laurie, Kevin and Nate!
Minnesota-based technical support staff (from left): Aasim, Aaron, Elisabeth, Nate
ISIS News volunteers/staff
Reviewers/contributors
Frands Carlsen, Copenhagen Zoo
Robert Erhardt, Zoological Society of San Diego
Kevin Johnson, ARAZPA
Translators
Chinese: Wenlei Fang, ISIS
Danish: Britta Scholz, Givskud Zoo; Henrik M Hestbech
French: Aude Desmoulins, Lille Zoo; Anne Fletcher-Jones, The Living Desert
German: Ulrike Rademacher, Stuttgart Zoo
Japanese: Kazu Takami, Osaka Municipal Tennoji Zoo
Polish: Barbara Zalewska
Spanish: Magaly Ojeda, National Foundation of Zoos & Aquaria (FUNPZA)
Russian: Tanya Arzhanova, Moscow Zoological Park
Web designer Yasir Wasi
Editors Michele Peters; Elisabeth Hunt news@isis.org
Contact ISIS central offices +1.651.209.9240 isis@isis.org
Support: +1.651.209.9250 support@isis.org |