software capabilities,SCC membership, etc for bids and Discourse

sphinx/software_desc/disciplines.rst

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+Discipline support
+#####################
+
+Specify collections management software was designed, and continues to support all
+natural history discipline types.
+
+Specify has recently added support for geology
+collections, with functionality and tables that support geology, but are also relevant
+to biological collections.
+
+Our data model is extremely customizable so the databases can be adapted for
+different disciplines and individual collections’ workflows.  The SCC currently has
+members using Specify software for the following collections (and many subdisciplines
+within them):
+
+* Arachnology
+* Arthropods
+* Botany
+
+  * Biocultural Collection
+  * Bryophytes
+  * Cryptogamic Botany
+  * Diatoms
+  * Fungi
+  * Lichens
+  * Palynology
+  * Phycology
+  * Seeds
+  * Vascular Plants
+
+* Entomology
+
+  * Amber
+  * Apoidea, Chalcidoidea
+  * Butterflies
+  * Coleoptera
+  * Homoptera
+  * Lepidoptera
+  * Orthopthera
+
+* Geology
+* Herpetology
+
+  * Amphibia
+  * Reptiles
+  * Tortoises
+
+* Ichthyology
+
+  * Fish Sounds
+
+* Invertebrate Paleontology
+
+  * Micropaleontology
+
+* Invertebrate Zoology
+
+  * Anthropods
+  * Aquatic Invertebrates
+  * Arthropods
+  * Cephalopods
+  * Crustacea
+  * Diatoms
+  * Hydrobiology
+  * Shells
+  * Crustacea
+  * Marine Invasive, Biosecurity
+  * Marine Invertebrates
+  * Coral Ecology
+  * Myriapoda
+  * Nematode
+  * Non-Molluscan
+  * Oligochaeta
+  * Shells
+  * Tunicates
+
+* Malacology
+
+  * Mollusks
+
+* Mammalology
+
+  * Archaeozoology Comparative Mammals
+  * Marine Mammals
+  * Primatology
+
+* Mineralogy
+
+  * Petrology/Oryctology
+
+* Mycology
+* Myriapod
+* Ornithology
+* Paleobotany
+* Paleoentomology
+* Paleozoology
+* Petrology
+* Vertebrate Paleontology
+* Zooarcheology
+* Zoology

sphinx/software_desc/hosting.rst

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+Specify Cloud Hosting
+#######################
+
+Database
+************
+Collection databases within each institution may be organized in different ways
+relative to each other. Research and planning are required to decide on an
+institutional database configuration, and SCC staff will advise on the differences
+between various options. Institutions may choose to combine data from multiple
+collections into a single Specify database, where they can share some data elements. Or
+they may choose to isolate the data of individual collections into discrete databases
+with no data sharing between them. Institutional requirements and preferences inform
+such decisions and affect pricing, data reuse and standardization, data backup regimes,
+user roles and permissions, and more.
+
+SCC members choose whether to host databases in the SCC Cloud service, or on local
+servers. The Specify Cloud hosting service includes automatic updates of Specify and
+constituent software, daily database backup, and 24/7 server status monitoring.
+
+As specified in the Specify Consortium Member Agreement, SCC has no legal interest in
+members' data and abides by any member restrictions on our access for technical support
+purposes.
+
+SCC will provide full, root, access to the Buyer databases for Buyer member staff.
+
+Specify Cloud uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) to host databases.
+
+The Buyer cost for Specify Cloud database hosting will depend on the number of
+independent Specify databases needed. (A single database may include data from one or
+more collections.) SCC currently charges $275 USD/year/database with a $300 one-time
+setup fee. We project cloud hosting costs will increase over the next five years due to
+expected increases in hosting provider (AWS) pricing. Including estimated average
+annual increases in AWS pricing, SCC annual database hosting fees would be as shown.
+
+.. csv-table:: Specify Cloud Database Hosting
+   :file: hosting_db.csv
+   :widths: 30, 20
+   :header-rows: 1
+
+*Numbers beyond Year 1 are estimates
+
+For a nominal cost, the SCC can set up “sandbox” Specify database instances for member
+staff to test migrations, updates, and to practice workflows before opening user access
+to a production database.
+
+Digital Assets
+****************
+
+Members may choose Specify Cloud to host their digital assets (files linked to database
+records), or if they would prefer to host them themselves. Even if a member chooses
+Specify Cloud hosting for their database, they may self-host collection-linked digital
+assets.
+
+Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) Standard is used for asset hosting and the S3
+Glacier Deep Archive is employed for asset backups. AWS pricing varies widely based on
+usage, including adding, listing, viewing, querying, and downloading assets.  With very
+large quantities of data, SCC is unable to provide definitive quote for the cost per
+year without information about asset usage levels and desired backup strategy.
+Our cost structure for asset hosting is to pass-through actual AWS S3 charges adding
+7.5% for Specify management and maintenance.
+

sphinx/software_desc/hosting_db.csv

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+Membership Year, Fee per year per database
+FY2025, $275 USD
+FY2026, $300 USD
+FY2027, $325 USD
+YFY2028, $350 USD
+FY2029, $375 USD
+Total per database, $1625 USD

sphinx/software_desc/membership.rst

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+SCC overview
+################
+
+The Specify Collections Consortium (SCC) is a U.S. not-for-profit organization organized
+under the legal umbrella of the University of Kansas, a public, state university located
+in Lawrence, Kansas. The SCC is dedicated to advancing digitization and data processing
+in biological and geological research collections. Our software engineering and
+technical support is based on 30+ years of engagement with the global research
+collection community. Over those three decades, we have provided software and technical
+support to collections of all sizes, ranging from small local repositories to large
+collections in country-wide museum consortia. Institutional membership in the SCC grants
+access to our latest Specify software and to technical support. As a member-driven,
+non-profit organization, SCC institutions also share a strong commitment to
+collaboratively advance modern, open-source cyberinfrastructure for research collections
+world-wide.
+
+Membership in the Specify Collections Consortium continues to grow each year increasing
+our global footprint and collective effort with a vibrant international community of
+collaborating collections scientists and informatics engineers. We remain dedicated to
+sustaining research collections with innovative software updates into the future,
+as well as providing efficient problem-solving and technical support with collections
+computing. We have been embedded within the research collections community for 30 years,
+and we have a proven track-record as an effective open-source software partner. During
+that time we have collaborated with researchers, curators, collection managers,
+students and volunteers at hundreds of collections worldwide.
+
+We enthusiastically look forward to the possibility of working with the scientists and
+staff of additional institutions to advance database computing in collections through
+Specify software, and  welcome them into the shared vision and governance of the
+Specify Collections Consortium as highly-valued and important partners.
+
+Membership Expectations
+************************************
+
+Country-level
+=========================
+With a large-scale consortium of collections such as a country-wide effort ("Country
+Consortium"), the SCC
+team would engage with a single representative as the primary contact (“Point Person”)
+for the majority of technical interactions. Ideally, the Point Person would be a
+technical employee of the Country Consortium, responsible for cultivating a technical
+support relationship with member institutions' collections staff to develop a deep
+understanding of their data processing needs and workflows, and handle front-line
+help desk technical support for member collections staff. SCC personnel will train the
+Point Person and act as a
+second level backstop of expertise to accept, research, and resolve complex issues.
+SCC would anticipate that the Point Person, or another delegate employee, would be
+responsible for migrating data from existing legacy systems to Specify databases.
+
+Founding Partner
+==================
+
+Associate
+============
+
+Full
+========
+

sphinx/software_desc/migration.rst

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+Data Migration
+###################
+
+Conventional migrations
+**************************
+
+
+Large-scale migrations
+************************
+With a large-scale consortium of collections such as a country-wide effort ("Country
+Consortium"), the SCC team is unable to provide the resources necessary for data
+migration of multiple institutions and collections.  In such cases we suggest the
+Country Consortium hire in-house staff familiar with relational databases to lead and
+execute data migration to Specify. This “Migration team” would become expertly familiar
+with Specify’s data model, behavior and user interfaces, plus understand institutional
+collection data workflows, local user requirements, and expectations of the
+collections staff.
+
+This Migration team would create a plan and a timeline for data migration, typically
+based on institutional priorities, legacy data quality, and data complexity and size.
+The Migration team would also be responsible for reviewing and cleaning data to be
+imported according to collection requirements and database settings, customizing the
+Specify application according to the collection requirements, and then importing data
+via Specify’s Workbench tool, Specify’s API, or with SQL scripts directly into the
+backend Specify database (MariaDB).  SCC staff would work with the Migration team to
+choose specific processing options and methods for data migrations.
+
+SCC technical staff will train the Point Person and Migration team involved in database
+setup and data migration to understand Specify at the Support level. The contacts should plan to allocate a week to visit our SCC headquarters in Kansas. There they would work intensively one-on-one with our technical support staff and software engineers to attain a database administrator level of mastery. After the visit, SCC staff will continue to meet with the person or team as needed over Zoom to discuss questions and to research and resolve issues that arise. The Buyer would be responsible for their staff travel expenses, the SCC will allocate staff time and project resources at no cost.
+We can facilitate meetings with other large national organizations who have undergone the same process of assessing collections’ requirements, deciding on configuration and customization options, preparing data for migration, and then importing data into Specify. We have worked with several organizations of a similar size and scale in transitions to Specify including: the Danish Natural History Museums, the Canadian Laurentian Forestry Centre, and the Australian federal government’s CSIRO. Each member has taken a somewhat custom transition to move to Specify based on the organization of local technical expertise and desired outcomes.
+

sphinx/software_desc/training.rst

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+Specify Training
+##################
+
+There are two levels of proficiency with Specify software: Support and User-level
+proficiency.
+
+Support level
+******************
+Support (or database administrator) level understanding is needed for the person(s)
+providing database configuration, customization, technical support, data migration, etc.
+These technically savvy support personnel will find it necessary to understand Specify’s
+database schema and the Specify application’s customization options. They will
+understand Specify’s core data tables and the relationships among them: data scoping and
+sharing across institutional hierarchies, XML for configuration, form layout
+customization, as well as other Specify software tools.
+
+
+
+
+User level
+****************
+
+The second level of Specify understanding is User level. Collections scientific staff, collections managers and curators will need to understand how to operate Specify to efficiently enter and edit data in forms, create and execute queries for retrieving information, import and export data, create loans and other transactions, print labels and reports, among other daily activities of daily collection management. To master collection data processing tasks, users will need a general familiarity with Specify’s core concepts, interface menus and web data forms.
+For User level training, we would recommend one or more in-person workshops led by SCC staff in Norway. We can propose various options for organizing user training. Options might be a two-day workshop for all of the Buyer institutions or a combination of a single general workshop with on-site sessions at each institution. During half-day sessions, the SCC staff could work with the collections staff to highlight key Specify concepts, demonstrate core features, and interactively discuss methods and approaches to collection-specific issues. We would ask the Buyer to be responsible for the travel and hosting costs of the workshop(s).