Revising the Oil Testing Kit docs

[Jeffrey Warren]

I'm tackling this project in the next few days, and wanted to solicit input and assistance from anyone who's interested. 

I'm currently planning things out here: https://github.com/publiclab/homebrew-sensing/issues/24

and my major tasks are:

* updating the spectrometer construction section to reflect Mathew L's work on the new Spectrometer 3.0 and Oil Testing Kit frame

* separating out info on the Oil Testing Kit project vs. the How-To section of the page

* integrating some discussion of the new Fellows program related to the Oil Testing Kit

Jeff

[Jeffrey Warren]

I've made a table of contents at the top, and am probably separating out "theory/background" and "construction/assembly" into separate pages. 

Looking good so far! 

http://publiclab.org/wiki/oil-testing-kit

But lots of additional work to do. :-)

[Jeffrey Warren]

I also promoted this wiki page to be a "tool" -- now viewable at: http://publiclab.org/tools

[Liz Barry]

It's looking really good Jeff. I'm thinking i can just print this wiki out as a PDF and take it to the DEC meeting Monday night to talk with their community oil spill response team. 

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@lizbarry

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[Jeffrey Warren]

I still haven't gotten to updating the assembly instructions for the new kits, but will this afternoon.

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[Liz Barry]

Thank you for these beautiful updates! I printed out the wiki page in color, and the stapled packets were very well received at a NY Dept. Env. Conservation Oil Spill Response meeting on Monday night. I'll post a note. 

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@lizbarry

[Jeffrey Warren]

Super. I'm adding the long-requested "collapsible sections" feature to the wiki as well, so that we can have "dive deep" sections without burdening the overall page with overly dense content. 

[Liz Barry]

cool feature!

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@lizbarry

[Jeffrey Warren]

I posted another revision, and also documentation on the new "foldaway" wiki feature, which I used: http://publiclab.org/wiki/authoring-help#Foldaways

http://publiclab.org/wiki/oil-testing-kit

[Jeffrey Warren]

I've also added a "Status and Limitations" section where I discuss what we're NOT currently trying to do (copied below). We ought to have this kind of section for all our tools! Do other folks have questions or suggestions for this section?

http://publiclab.org/wiki/oil-testing-kit#Status+&+Limitations

Although our long-term goal is to create a kit capable of fingerprinting a specific oil and tying it to a specific polluter and pollution event, our most immediate goal is to identify the weight of an oil, in relation to a range of known samples, ranging from motor oil to different crude oils. We are increasingly confident in the kits ability to perform this more narrow task.

We do not currently attempt to use the kit to:

• tell you the type of oil without comparing it to other known samples
• compare data directly with data from other kits -- only from the same kit and experimental setup
• measure oil directly in the field
• make measurements with a smartphone (we're focusing on the desktop interface first)

That does not mean these are impossible, or that we're not interested in working on these challenges. But we are choosing to rigorously attempt to complete narrower, more focused challenges before moving on to more complex tests. One step at a time!

[Stevie Lewis]

Nice. I think maybe the phrase "not interested in working on these challenges" could be changed to something like "not in the scope of our current work."

Like the idea of this section being on all tool pages. It could help a lot with some of the questions we get, but we should continue to encourage people to experiment with them! 

[Jeffrey Warren]

Hi, Stevie - the line is currently: 

> That does not mean these are impossible, or that we're not interested in working on these challenges. 

so could I just add "in the future" to the end? I'll go ahead -- I think that's what you mean, but pls correct me if I misunderstand. 

Thanks!

Jeff

[Stevie Lewis]

sounds good.