Ithaca, NY Workflows are a repeatable sequence of operations that achieve an outcome. A scientific workflow is unique among other types of workflows because it specifically represents a graphical model of data flow among processing steps. The Kepler Project provides an open source scientific workflow tool that allows users to author and execute scientific workflows.

Watch and listen to video and audio of this Golden-Crowned Sparrow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library web site.

Paul Allen, Assistant Director of Information Science programs at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recently gave an introduction to the concepts behind the NSDL-funded biodiversity pipeline project known as “Science Pipes,” based on Kepler, for Fedora Commons developers. Science Pipes will support inquiry-based learning, allowing analysis results and visualizations to be dynamically incorporated into web sites (e.g. blogs) for dissemination and consumption.

New scientific knowledge is synthesized through analysis. The fine points of modeling and repeated analysis on sets of data present investigators with issues such as how analysis frameworks can be repeated, how do you keep track of steps “in your head,” processes and analysis systems sometimes do not synch, components are often not re-used, and there is not accepted way to publish workflow results.

A typical scientific workflow might include data collection, cleaning, analysis,  modeling and graphing into a visual display. Users access “Directors” and “Actors” in the Kepler system to maniplulate data through a workflow. A “director” is an execution model that tells an “actor” to perform a related series of functions such as “download sensor data.”

Kepler-based SciencePipes is designed to provide an environment in which students, educators, citizens, resource managers, and scientists can create and share analyses and visualizations of biodiversity data. CLO maintains significant biodiversity resources such as the Macaulay Library that houses the world’s largest online archive of animal sounds and videos.