GREAT LAKES INHABITABLE DATABASE
OF SCIENCE, HISTORY, ECONOMICS, AND CULTURE

REGISTRATION

Non-members
Upon entry, each non-member visitor chooses a dataset to explore on her visit. Current available datasets include pollution/AOCs, interlake commerce, land use and mineral deposits, fish spawning and hatcheries, and regional poetry and prose. Additional possibilities include sets on invasive species, climate and storms, and any other catagory that building members conceive of and contribute to. The registered visitor is given a data-strain-specific tracking device to wear during her visit.

Members
Visitors may become members of the GLERL ID by creating a new dataset or contributing to any existing one. Data contribution may occur onsite or remotely via the GLERL ID website. Examples of existing member-created datasets include a link to the online Degree Confluence Project and a set of images of elementary art work inspired by the Great Lakes. When members visit the building, they may choose to pursue a “generic” dataset or a strain tailored to their interests as determined by the data they have contributed.NAVIGATION

The lower level of the building houses a 26’ x 58’ display surface the responds to the movement of visitors via their tracking devices. The default display is a map of some segment of the Great Lakes drainage basin, relatively devoid of annotation. As visitors move around the building, their dataset is displayed on the surface at their projected coordinate position, with varying levels of detail and annotation dependant upon their distance from the surface. The surface also provides a barrier between the inhabitable space of the building and the water of Muskegon channel and becomes transparent when a visitor is within two feet of it, allowing a view into the actual water of the Great Lakes. Additional locations or events in and around the building provide other experiences for building visitors, including:

Monitored Fish Project-When a fish included in a GLERL tagging study is within view of the building, all displays disappear except information about the particular fish, allowing visitors to search for and identify an actual fish.
Member’s Override-If a member of the GLERL ID spends more than 2 minutes on a specified 10’ x 4’ platform, her contributed data will override all other displays for a period of 2 minutes.

Temporal Comparison-A designated platform displays a dataset over time (past records or future extrapolation) via animation or small multiples when multiple visitors following the same dataset are gathered there.

Member Determined-A platform is designated to display the favorite dataset of GLERL ID members when more than one member is gathered there (determined by online or onsite poll and updated weekly)s