[Taxacom] Scio Qualis: A new cloud-based Collections Management Application is now soliciting beta testers

[Robin Schroeder]

Dear Taxacomers,

ScioQualis.com, an innovative, cloud-based, online collections database
management application, is now soliciting beta testers.  We believe we have
built something amazing to help the science of taxonomy and we need your
honest feedback.  Our mission is to help you precisely record, efficiently
manage, easily retrieve and safely store your collections data.

There is no software to install.  Scio Qualis uses the Software as a
Service (SaaS) model, which allows you to focus on collection content and
accuracy of that content; instead of technology or hardware issues.  You
simply register and go; with your content accessible from anywhere that has
an Internet connection (including smart phones and tablets).  There is a
robust role-based security model that allows you to request access to
others’ collections and others may also request access to see your
collection(s); including read-only access.

Subscriptions start at $19 per month and 4-month trial/student semester
accounts are free.  To thank people and Institutions that help us by
participating in the beta program, they will pay nothing for service until
Jan 1, 2014. Free 4 month trial accounts are available now if you would
like to see how it all works in more detail.

This software has been designed from the ground up to address many of the
recurring problems discussed here on Taxacom, such as unique identifier
generation and resolution.  There is also extensive Darwin Core export,
Georeferencing, specimen storage location, and label printing support.  As
we develop additional functionality in response to community needs, such as
loan and exchange tracking, or OCR-based rapid data entry of labels, it
becomes available to everyone.

Please visit our site at ScioQualis.com to learn more or watch our YouTube
videos found on our training page and register for your own free trial
account.  No credit card information or payment is required, but we do
require an email address.  If you like what you see and are ready to take
your collection data management to the next level, consider participating
in our beta program.  We will be offering free data conversion for a
limited number of participants, who decide they want to use Scio Qualis at
the conclusion of the beta period.  Please email us at
beta at scioqualis.combefore January 17, 2013 to participate in the beta
tester program, or to
learn more about it.

Thank-you for your time and, for those that are interested, the following
is a list of some key benefits of using Scio Qualis:

Concentrate on Building Quality Content
   * Rich set of data fields to help you record data precisely
   * Many fields are represented by enumerated lists for consistent,
accurate, data entry
   * Associate citations with identifications, taxa, taxon concepts, and
occurrences
   * Associate occurrences with taxa, other occurrences and citations
   * Collaborate with others by granting them access to your collection as
readers or contributors
   * Support for custom Measurements or Facts
   * Generate labels with QR Barcodes (custom labels available with other
barcode symbologies)
   * Photo upload – link them to your data, EXIF geo-location metadata is
auto-extracted
   * Rapid data entry using human directed OCR workflows is under
development.  Carryover and required fields are already supported via
collection-specific configuration.

Make your Data Sticky
   * All data in Scio Qualis is driven by GUIDs, which are easily
resolvable within Scio Qualis and by major search engines like Google,
Yahoo, and Bing.
   * Alternate unique identifiers (LSID, Legacy Identifiers, Collection
Code + Catalog Number etc), are easily resolvable within Scio Qualis and
also indexed with search engines for easy, intuitive, and accessible
resolution by the general public.
   * Create outbound links FROM your taxa, occurrences, locality info,
samples and citations TO specific sites like Genbank, EOL, ITIS, BHL,
BioStor, Wikipedia, The Getty Thesaurus and any other URL or URI.

Make it Affordable
   * We offer free 4 month trial accounts that are perfect for students who
need to make a collection for a class or anyone that just wants to give the
application a thorough test drive before making any real commitment.
   * Accounts start at $19/month for 5,000 occurrence records and grow with
the size and data storage needs of the collection and institution.
 Collections with up to 100,000 occurrence records and 300GB of photo/media
storage are $149 per month.
   * Beta program participants will receive free data import and 12 months
of Scio Qualis for free.  In exchange, we ask for your feedback to guide
ongoing development and enhancements.
   * If you have been waiting for an affordable online solution, now is
your chance.  It simply does not get any more affordable to host and manage
data online and no programmers are required to do it.
   * We really do think Scio Qualis offers an incredible opportunity to
digitize and make accessible thousands of collections from small citizen
scientist spreadsheets to the large institution databases alike.  It really
levels the playing field of functionality for managing natural history
collections data; especially for underfunded collections that find it
difficult to afford dedicated IT staff.

Make it Secure
   * Each user may have different permissions to different collections and
different institutions according to a robust role-based security system
(i.e. Collection Administrator, Contributor, Reviewer, Reader, Transcriber,
and Quality Assurance).
   * Entire collections and Individual occurrence and/or lower geography
records may be configured as visible or hidden from specific roles,
including the general public.
   * Data is stored geo-redundantly (see account page for details) using
the Azure Cloud Computing Network, with data centers in Europe, Asia, North
and South America.
   * Database backups are performed on a regular basis and transferred to a
secure location off of the cloud/Internet.

Share & Collaborate
   * Exports in Darwin Core Archive Format – suitable for GBIF or other
portals
   * Collaborate with others by granting them role-based access to your
collection(s)
   * Allow the general public to resolve your GUIDs or alternate unique
identifiers

Make it Easy
   * No software to install or update (other than a reasonably-current
browser)
   * Access from anywhere with an Internet connection
   * Ever growing library of training videos and documentation
   * Clickable tooltips on every field of every form for context-sensitive
help
   * Create a free trial account in one minute and go.  No credit card is
required and no need to talk to anyone (unless you want to, of course).
   * Access to example training collections for reference and learning
   * Open lines of communication, we welcome feedback!

Thanks again for your time and consideration!

Robin and Paul Schroeder
Co-Founders
ScioQualis.com