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A few grad students and I started something quite some time ago out of MIT called OpenWetWare.Org that was meant to help organize things like this and included

by skosuri 13y ago

A few grad students and I started something quite some time ago out of MIT called OpenWetWare.Org that was meant to help organize things like this and included calenders, lab notebooks, stocks, lab webpages, simple sample tracking, et cetera using a wiki (when they were all the rage :-). When we had buy in from the whole lab it's awesome, but as you mention, over a couple of years, much of that initial enthusiasm faded. In looking at which worked, and which didn't, it really comes down to how much the PI of the lab cares about this stuff; if s/he uses, appreciates, and instills it into lab practice, some of those groups have continued to use it to this day with really in-depth information. In most others, it tends to fade because it is not a priority and is usually seen as a waste of time by the PI. I'm about to start a lab (at UCLA), I'm trying to figure out how best to begin making such a culture... but it is an interesting problem that does need a solution.

haldujai 13y ago
Impressive! OpenWetWare is extremely useful, my supervisors old lab from when she was a post doc uses OpenWetWare to store all their protocols and calculations, it was very useful when she changed institutions for us to get a copy of those, you saved me a lot of time from having to email people for their protocols. In my opinion lab environments aren't really like start ups in terms of culture, students have their own way of doing things and trying to force them to do things a particular way is detrimental to their performance and attitude. Since students are around for at least 6-7 years there is not really the issue of turnover and the necessity of keeping things uniform so that a replacement can pick up work right away. Whatever system you use a new student will still need several months to adjust and learn the basic skills necessary for research, during that time they can develop a system of their own so it's not really downtime. As a student I think trying to force such a culture is a mistake, you'll develop a reputation if you hardball it. Most PIs take the attitude of we don't care as long as the job gets done and things are labelled for safety sake. That seems to work quite well.
irollboozers 13y ago
Thank you for creating OpenWetWare! It actually became a really great tool for looking up protocols from other labs. I know many people who still use it fervently!

by skosuri 13y ago

haldujai 13y ago

Impressive! OpenWetWare is extremely useful, my supervisors old lab from when she was a post doc uses OpenWetWare to store all their protocols and calculations, it was very useful when she changed institutions for us to get a copy of those, you saved me a lot of time from having to email people for their protocols. In my opinion lab environments aren't really like start ups in terms of culture, students have their own way of doing things and trying to force them to do things a particular way is detrimental to their performance and attitude. Since students are around for at least 6-7 years there is not really the issue of turnover and the necessity of keeping things uniform so that a replacement can pick up work right away. Whatever system you use a new student will still need several months to adjust and learn the basic skills necessary for research, during that time they can develop a system of their own so it's not really downtime. As a student I think trying to force such a culture is a mistake, you'll develop a reputation if you hardball it. Most PIs take the attitude of we don't care as long as the job gets done and things are labelled for safety sake. That seems to work quite well.

irollboozers 13y ago

Thank you for creating OpenWetWare! It actually became a really great tool for looking up protocols from other labs. I know many people who still use it fervently!