so you've been down this road many times, I'm curious and don't like making wasted journey's - what are the key failure points you've encountered then? What are the things we should do that shortcut some of the work? Do you have zee data and is there any reason(s) why it would not be usable? What are the skills you can help with?
thanks,
bb
Just a quick...ish note. This topic can really get me going so I could easily write a book.
As for me and my abilites, I own a software company, an IT/IS consulting company, and am a partner in a few other web based businesses. I also co-own a private data center and disaster recovery facility. I have developed and architected enterprise software solutions for over 15 years and have extensive data mining expertise. Oh, and I grill a mean steak too!
Like everything associated with this field and phenomenon, trying to consolidate UFO data is a story laden with drama, dripping with frustration, and burdened by short sighted and "me"centric ego. It is gonna be a hard row to hoe.
Pitfalls and Problems
1. Access to Data. MUFON is the widest and largest UFO related data collection and consolidation entity in the world not run by a government or reclusive billionaire. Probably 85%+ of the worlds reports end up there. Personally I think this is a conservative estimate. This collection runs for over 40 years. A few years back MUFON sold their entire data collection effort to a notorious figure in Las Vegas and the entire collection was boxed up and sent there. The contract between MUFON and Bigelow was leaked and is displayed somewhere in the forum archives in its entirety. Its a dry but interesting read. One interesting part is that the Bigelow group got everything and only had to return something like 3 or 4 pieces of data to MUFON.
(Bob Bigelow Bought MUFON ?? | The Paracast Community Forums)
It is my recollection that part of this contract was that MUFON could not grant unrestricted access to the data it retained. But I have not read it in years and cant remember all the details. Instead MUFON created an extremely worthless database search engine that gives very little if any relevant research data. But, it does give MUFON the ability to represent themselves as having a degree of transparency of data. To be clear, they do not and are not at all interested in hearing about data search patterns, cross correlative data analysis, historical data reconstruction, or any number of other ways the data collected could be used to garner information.
Of the remaining 15% of collections, most are guarded by people or entities that do not want to share their data. Most of my pleas were either unanswered or I was given a "not at this time" response. But, in fairness, I was one man. I feel now and have always felt that a group would get more attention and perhaps elicit a different reaction.
2. Deaf Ears. I have personally plead the case to MUFON about truely opening their database to qualified researchers. I suggested things like creating a qualification or certification program, creating a MUFON profit center by allowing researchers to pay for access, Requiring researchers to sign very restrictive NDA's, and many more ideas. But no. ALL of my suggestions were ignored or shot down and I kept being referred to the same bullshit database search engine you get access to when paying for a MUFON membership. Frustrating.
3. Data Integrity/Consistency. How do you ensure that the data you are collecting is reliable and unaltered. I have seen the same incident reported in 3 different ways from 3 different sources. If you have been looking into this subject with any depth you have seen the same thing. The problem is that some of these stories are so freakishly divergent they almost need to two or three different occurrences. So much of this phenomenon seems to be perception. When you have 3+ stories your going to get 3+ different perceptions of the events. How do you consolidate these and still maintain consistency, cohesion, and integrity? It becomes a really difficult job very quickly. All of this only compounds when your data provider is sketchy.
There are more negatives, but these are the biggest issues. NOBODY wants to give up their data. Sure they will give you small tid bits or point you to their book. But if you want to have a database that is useful for research it must include details that are more often irrelevant to a story. For instance, in a book I might say, "the object was seen on the ground in Macon County". For a book that might suffice. But a researcher might want to cross correlate data points with other databases or services. I might need to know exactly where in Macon County so that I can lookup common vegetation, topography, soil composition, population dispersal, etc.
Even congenial researchers/authors that preach openness are not willing to provide their data. Some will angrily tell you to go do the research yourself. Others will promise and never quite "make the time" to get you what you ask for. I have even been told that I could buy all the research a certain guy had for $2000. I declined.
BUT, and I want to stress this, lets not let history deter from trying again. Its frustrating and sometimes you have to take a step back for a while but the pay off would be too cool to "go quietly into the night" on the idea. I am still willing to help and it looks like the forum is attracting more of the technical crowd, much to my pleasure, so why not give it another try.
