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Welcome to PangaWiki! This wiki is a dynamic manual and reference for the data library

PANGAEA® - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science PangaWiki is operated to support data providers, curators and end-users in archiving, publishing and retrieving data from earth system research in the data library PANGAEA. It is the reference system for any questions and information around the system and its operation. The PANGAEA curator login is required to add or modify pages.

An outline of important PangaWiki chapters is listed in the table of contents.

If you need information on how to provide data for archiving and publication please go to Data submission.

New users may start reading the following pages:
 * PANGAEA
 * Data model
 * Project
 * Campaign
 * Event
 * Data series, Data set, Parent set
 * Parameter, Parameter Dictionary
 * Basic rules, Curator and Staff

see also:
 * Articles and projects related to data management.
 * A list of publications, presentations, posters and talks about PANGAEA is maintained in ePIC.
 * Recommendations, aphorisms and draft web pages.
 * The STD-DOI project

Why using a Wiki for PANGAEA?
Operation of a complex system like PANGAEA is a challenge and must be supported by documentation. In a first step, documentation was distributed through various pdf-files, web pages, and a (draft) manual. Also the BSCW system was used to exchange documentation and common files between various projects and curators. But a major problem of an up-to-date documentation is the fast development of the technology related to data systems and the Internet. Also new scientific requirements, sometimes just invented from scratch in running projects, need to be described. This could not be performed through the use of a static (and most of the time outdated) manual.''

A flexible documentation system was needed to support users in providing and accessing data and curators while working with PANGAEA. The introduction of the wiki principle allowed a dynamic documentation. With the Open Source software MediaWiki, developed and used by the Internet Encyclopedia Wikipedia, a free software tool is provided for fast and easy editing of the manual.