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Name: Thomas Metz
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Position: Senior Scientist, Research Informatics
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Contact: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
Mail: DAPO Box 7777, Metro Manila, Philippines
Telephone:
- +63 (2) 580-5600; 845-0563; 844-3351 to 53
- +63 (49) 536-2701 to 2705
- +1 (650) 833-6620 (USA Direct)
- [Local extension: 2895]
Fax:
- +63 (2) 580-5699; 845-0606
- +63 (49) 536-7995
- +1 (650) 833-6621 (USA Direct)
Email: t.metz@cgiar.org
Skype: nurmetz
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tmetz@irri:
I joined IRRI in July 2004 as an International Research Fellow in the Biometrics and Bioinformatics Unit (BBU). In June 2007, I was appointed as Senior Scientist, Research Informatics and since September 2008 I have been the Interim Head of CRIL (the former BBU).
Here are what I consider my major contributions to IRRI:
I have initiated the deployment of collaborative development systems at IRRI, both for the ICIS project and the Generation Challenge Program. The systems that I am talking about are CropForge, a collaborative software development platform using the GForge software, which is in turn a branch of the SourceForge system, as well as CropWiki, a content development system that uses the MediaWiki software, which is well known for driving the WikiPedia online encyclopedia that everyone can edit.
During the first two years I made major contributions to a change in IRRI's Intellectual Property (IP) policy. The former default of copyright - all rights reserved, became copyright - some rights reserved, for data, software, publications, etc. Software is now published under an Open Source license (e.g. GPL) and publication under a Creative Commons license. To see the impact of this change, just have a look at the IRRI books now published as free downloads, the IRRI photos on flickr, or the IRRI videos on YouTube.
Together with Emmali Manalo, I have developed a training course for research data management that is given frequently at IRRI. To enhance the impact of the training course, we have also developed a support site with solutions (recipes) to common problems in research data management. These components, together with a helpdesk for research data management, support scientists in their efforts to produce and maintain high-quality data, from data capture to data analysis.
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