Data management

Commercial CD-ROM developed in FileMaker Pro

 

I co-managed the production of the ‘Burnley Plant Directory’, a cross-platform CD-ROM product comprising a number of relational databases sharing information and pictures. The product was developed in FileMaker Pro and contains data on over 1200 plants and over 4000 photographs of them (including some of mine).

This product is aimed commercially at the general gardening public as well as landscape architects and others involved in selecting plants for particular growing conditions. It will also be used by institutions that teach about plants and need their students to get to know a suite of plants and their characteristics.

In the initial stages of the project, I identified the methodology that should be used for collecting the data. I took no further role in the project until a couple of years ago, when the project appeared to be foundering. Then, I proposed that I should devise and implement the software and interface for the product. At that time, I again joined the management team of the project, working with a graphic artist, botanists and horticulturists to bring the project to completion.

The CD-ROM has been commercially published by Melbourne University Press.