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New Jersey

Greetings,

Just another request for growers to input their information into the database of Giant Pumpkins (Now accepting Watermelons too...).
User contributions have been slow and we have been relying mainly upon somewhat dated spreadsheets, it would be nice to have more current and quality information direct from the growers. You may enter your information and upload photos through a simple form.

http://www.giantvegenetics.com/Giant_Vegetables/DNAtrack_Giant_Vegetable_Database.php?vegetableid=1

We in turn provide this information freely to anyone under the GNU Free Documentation license. If you would like to join up and contribute efforts to the project email me at [email protected]

To the webmasters of the clubs and organizations, if you would like the ability to have family trees and other reports available on your website for auctions, sales, or for purely informational purposes please get in touch.

Thanks,
Jason

1/10/2006 3:46:48 PM

Pumpkintown, SC

How will/does the "available information" differ from that of the AGGC? BF

1/10/2006 9:55:56 PM

New Jersey

I wouldn't know.

Jason

1/11/2006 7:42:00 AM

Eugene, OR

The biggest difference is that more than a few lucky souls can access it. The AGGC has a ton of great info but lets face it, there are a lot of people who can't access it for whatever reason. What are the people without access supposed to do for the info they need to make educated cross decisions and seed choices? Pumpkin growing is one of the friendliest and open pastimes I've ever had the honor of being a part of. We all share growing techniques, lessons we've learned, theories we have, and welcome the new growers with open arms. Why should the sharing stop at something as basic as cross info?

That's just my opinion and I may be part of the minority as far as that goes but I have always been amazed by the quality of people I've had the honor of meeting through pumpkin growing and just can't see how this should be any different. Brian Reid

1/11/2006 12:30:45 PM

Missoula, Montana

I agree with you Brian.

1/11/2006 2:20:45 PM

Norton, MA

This was a big debate a couple years ago. There were many good ideas put out but nothing really changed. I agree too by the way. AleX Noel.

1/11/2006 6:39:51 PM

New Salisbury IN

Brian I am with you

1/11/2006 7:04:43 PM

Cameron,ontario Team Lunatic

GVGO offers limited access to the AGGC to all it's members. You'll get heirarchy trees, progeny trees & graphs, photos, & reports cards for over 5000 pumpkins & squash listed on the site. It's not the same as the AGGC, but it's free to all our members. Better than nothing. Ask a few of our members about it. Steve Zuhlke is a member that receives it. You could ask him how he likes it.

Phil

1/12/2006 6:52:00 AM

Austria

My question is, how the access is limited. In other words, what part of the aggc don`t you get with the limited account?

1/12/2006 7:27:17 AM

Cameron,ontario Team Lunatic

There is tons of information on the AGGC. Too much to list here. Mike has given us the basic info, but enough to help pick out our seeds for next year. It's a great benefit for those who can't access the site.

Phil

1/12/2006 9:41:22 AM

As a Member of the GVGO i have benefitted from the Membership access areas to the AGGC on several ocasions, it's better than just the public access only sections and for a $20.00 membership fee it's well worth it. Oh, and you get 10% off the cost of a Soil Analyses at A&L Canada Lab's too.

1/12/2006 9:55:08 AM

Cameron,ontario Team Lunatic

You'll also get a great selection of seeds in March from our generous members, plus 3 really good newsletters.

Phil

1/13/2006 6:29:57 AM

Pocatello ([email protected])

I think we need to get behind something. Developing a viable
alternative to AGGC will take years, but doing so would result
in either: 1) the AGGC being forced to accept anyone who is
willing to pay a fee, or, 2) we then have our alternative
database.

It would also be good to have something that is not limited
to Microsoft's browser.

1/13/2006 10:12:09 AM

Pocatello ([email protected])

If everyone interested would just enter the data from their seed collection, we'd have a great start!

1/13/2006 10:31:14 AM

New Jersey

Giantvegenetics is not limited to a Microsoft browser, you can view it in any modern browser and most likely the ancient ones as well - I've kept things pretty standard in that regard.

I would go a little further than what Brian had said earlier when he said anyone can access giantvegenetics, in that anyone is free to reuse and redistribute anything they see on giantvegenetics.com... So in other words anyone can come and take any information from giantvegenetics.com and republish it in original or modified form in any format they wish under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation license.

There have been several attempts to create a pumpkin database by others including AG Lite, the Crampton Seed Database, and Brian's Insanity... Giant Vegenetics is just another among those - one which is willing to share freely and is open to collaboration. In fact, I am openly seeking to collaborate with anyone to avoid the duplication of efforts in collecting pumpkin data...
Why should people have to contribute their data to 5 places... There should be a centralized location for this... Ideally managed by an organization like the GPC or some other... but until that time... ?

1/13/2006 11:24:40 AM

New Jersey

I have the capability to display progeny trees,
and will eventually create all sorts of other things such as various graphs and the like for statistical analysis and such... I'd like to see more community contribution and ensure the basic function is solid before I move along to those items. So far I've kept things pretty basic and display up to 10 photos, a variety of details about each pumpkin, provide a connected discussion thread, and display a family tree of those pumpkins which have been reviewed...

We currently feature only 173 pumpkins.
Due to concerns and threats of surveillance over copyright issues with some of our potential startup data sources. It was decided to start from absolute scratch, forgoing several available sources for potential dataseed sources to avoid any potential issues...

Until there are more entries it's value won't be fully realized... I have a good amount of basic data which was contributed via a spreadsheet to run through the script about what I'll call 'historical' records from 1995 and earlier, but am very interested in getting contributions directly from the growers such that accurate and detailed information and photos can be displayed. Tools, Graphs, and Reports aside, what is important here is having a collection of information which is freely available to anyone to use and reuse as they wish.

Jason

1/13/2006 11:24:45 AM

Montoursville, PA

The GPC has the best chance to build a new listing. This sport is attracting so many new growers who pop five to eight hundred pound pumpkins the first year that collection and recording of the many throughout the world is a wash out for any one person.

When the now inactive list of the famous 700 list there are many ommissions because no one called or sent them in. The job has become a nightmare. That's just my personal opinion.

If GPC could just collect from a thousand or even eleven hundred on up there would be many more intellegent averages for data and projections from that data than one could even imagine when the first 700 pound list was started. Someone must figure out where the bottom may be and still provide a good set of collected facts. The goal of every pumpkin from 700 up is pretty well snowed under in the real of impossible for any one person to collect.

This is fodder for bigger heads than mine to consider. I think I have fairly identified a darn good real problem. Our organization is very young. Do not be knocking, on those, who have done very well up, to a given point.

Please do not read this thinking I am saying a 700 pound pumpkin is a piece, of cake and not worthy, of recording. I did not say or imply that at all. They nearly all are on the weigh-off site web pages. Any individual can go there and collect data, to support, a personal goal, in genetic crosses or seed history findings.

I suspect someday such lists will be for sale, in some format but there will be many ommissions, in any list that trys to include to many individual pumpkins.

1/13/2006 11:57:41 AM

Long Island,New York

"Due to concerns and threats of surviellance over copyright issues with some of our potential startup data sources"...I'm confused by this mumbo jumbo...does this mean you tried to steal all the AGGC info and put it on your own website?

1/14/2006 7:30:06 AM

New Jersey

NO! That is not what it means at all...

What it means is that I had a few sources who were willing to allow me to use their information for the database at giantvegenetics. In the end I decided against using them and instead start from scratch. Not because I thought they stolen from the AGGC, but because in some cases they had been accused of doing so. For me, I'd rather not deal with it - In particular because I am creating an open and freely shared database which is released under the GNU Free Documentation license and for me to release questionable info in such a way would be wrong and leave me liable. By starting from scratch I can ensure that the database is as pure as possible in terms of intellectual property law. In addition the liability of any potential copyright infringement is on the shoulders of the contributor. So when YOU steal all the info from the AGGC and post it on giantvegenetics it is YOU who will be held responsible - I would act as the initial intermediary if contacted in regards to such issues until it is determined that actual infringement has occured, at that time I'd simply be pointing the finger in your direction. Got it?
Pretty much any website with user contributed information follows a similar course of action...

Hope this clears it up for you - if you have additional questions just ask.

Jason

1/17/2006 1:34:58 PM