[00:00.000 --> 00:11.600]  Hello, good morning everyone. I'm Christopher Peters and I'm going to present you Grotto
[00:11.600 --> 00:18.440]  Center. So first a bit about me. I'm from Belgium. I'm mostly working as a trainer
[00:18.440 --> 00:24.400]  and consultant in open source and DevOps. And in my free time I'm spending quite a lot
[00:24.400 --> 00:29.880]  of time doing outdoor adventure stuff such as for example I go into caves. By the way
[00:29.880 --> 00:33.360]  for the people who like to enjoy the pictures of my slides this is the only picture that
[00:33.360 --> 00:40.040]  I didn't take. So it's a bit difficult to take it when you're posing for it. So first
[00:40.040 --> 00:45.920]  a bit about caving or speleology. So what does it actually mean? It's mostly a scientific
[00:45.920 --> 00:53.920]  study where we are going into caves or outdoors and explore cast phenomena or caves in particular.
[00:53.920 --> 01:00.600]  If we are going into caves to study what is happening over there, there are different
[01:00.600 --> 01:06.120]  sciences that are involved. There is geology, there is biology, there is also a lot of physics
[01:06.120 --> 01:11.320]  and chemistry involved. But in general to get to the place that we want to study we need
[01:11.320 --> 01:18.840]  to go and pass certain obstacles. We have to crawl through some small passages. We have
[01:18.840 --> 01:25.240]  to descend into pits and for that we need a certain physical activity to get there.
[01:25.240 --> 01:30.720]  So there are some people who do this for science to actually research things that are happening
[01:30.720 --> 01:35.160]  down there. There are other people who just like to do the physical activity and so it's
[01:35.160 --> 01:42.400]  also a bit of a sport. For the people who are a bit familiar with other terminologies
[01:42.400 --> 01:46.480]  in English it's also known as caving, potholing, spelunking. So there are different words
[01:46.480 --> 01:53.400]  for it but in general the idea is we go into caves. Now if we go into caves of course there
[01:53.400 --> 01:57.360]  are a few things that we have to keep in mind and one of the things that I would like to
[01:57.360 --> 02:03.480]  present to you today is a problem that we often have to deal with. So when we go into
[02:03.480 --> 02:08.520]  caves on this picture you can see a person who is descending into a pit on a rope and
[02:08.520 --> 02:15.960]  this is something you don't do just like okay it's 10 o'clock let's go and see what's
[02:15.960 --> 02:22.760]  in this hole. We actually do some preparations. For that we are using a lot of information
[02:22.760 --> 02:27.960]  that we are consulting to make sure that we have the other equipment with us. We have
[02:27.960 --> 02:35.560]  also made sure that we are using the right tools that we are also making sure that we
[02:35.560 --> 02:39.520]  are not going in the wrong moments because sometimes also weather conditions can make
[02:39.520 --> 02:48.560]  a very bad influence on the conditions in a cave. Here you see an example of a survey.
[02:48.560 --> 02:52.640]  We have quite a lot of surveys that provide us with information on how the cave looks
[02:52.640 --> 02:57.960]  like if it has already been explored. And we can use these surveys to also make sure
[02:57.960 --> 03:03.280]  that we have all the rigging material with us that we make sure that we know where we
[03:03.280 --> 03:09.880]  are going, what we are going to do and what kind of dangers that could be involved in
[03:09.880 --> 03:16.280]  this in this trip. For this we have the surveys. They provide us with this information. There
[03:16.280 --> 03:22.520]  is also sometimes a description that is added to the survey which provides us more information
[03:22.520 --> 03:28.080]  of for example how to get to the entrance, maybe some particularities, special things
[03:28.080 --> 03:34.800]  we would like to see or special things we would like to avoid. And sometimes also separately
[03:34.800 --> 03:39.920]  we have rigging information. That's not always the case but depending on how well a cave
[03:39.920 --> 03:47.440]  has been researched and explored these documents are available. On this survey there is also
[03:47.440 --> 03:53.680]  here, over here you can see that there is an indication which actually also tells that
[03:53.680 --> 03:58.800]  this is a pit of 20 meters and so sometimes also this information is only available on
[03:58.800 --> 04:05.160]  the survey. Except for that we also have other information which is not very necessary to
[04:05.160 --> 04:11.440]  just facilitate the trip itself but which can give us some more background. For example
[04:11.440 --> 04:17.360]  scientific research that has been performed, some information about the region that could
[04:17.360 --> 04:22.520]  be geologically, that could be biologically. That could also be for example information
[04:22.520 --> 04:28.760]  about how rivers are flowing above and underground. There is also other kind of research that
[04:28.760 --> 04:35.320]  can have been performed that isn't necessarily limited to this specific cave we are going
[04:35.320 --> 04:41.800]  to visit but that could be more broad and give more information about also the region
[04:41.800 --> 04:47.120]  or maybe a particular kind of cave. And other documentation like for example when they made
[04:47.120 --> 04:52.720]  this survey they also took measurements. This survey has been made probably with compass
[04:52.720 --> 04:58.800]  and just measuring tape and thus they might have taken notes of that. They might have
[04:58.800 --> 05:04.720]  also saved them somewhere. These days we are also using more modern technologies such as
[05:04.720 --> 05:10.560]  radar and 3D scanners and also those data points that can be saved and they can also
[05:10.560 --> 05:17.720]  be archived. All this kind of information is available at a certain location. Most of
[05:17.720 --> 05:24.600]  the time it is the person who has generated this information who owns this information.
[05:24.600 --> 05:31.760]  But if we want to share this we are very much scattered around the world and there is not
[05:31.760 --> 05:37.400]  such a thing as a central database. That is the actual problem we have to deal with.
[05:37.400 --> 05:42.360]  So if you look at how we are going to share this information these days a lot of this
[05:42.360 --> 05:49.480]  happens by email or by websites or blogs. Sometimes also some file transfer services
[05:49.480 --> 05:56.040]  but in general all the information is at one specific organization, one specific person
[05:56.040 --> 06:00.720]  or group of persons and you have to know where you have to go to if you want to actually
[06:00.720 --> 06:07.240]  access the information. There are some countries who do have their central databases but this
[06:07.240 --> 06:13.720]  is not something which is also standardized or generalized. If we then have the information
[06:13.720 --> 06:18.880]  about the cave like for example the survey how also are we going to link this with scientific
[06:18.880 --> 06:23.160]  research that has been performed around this cave. That is also one of the problems we
[06:23.160 --> 06:27.680]  have to deal with. If we are contacting someone because we want to visit the cave very often
[06:27.680 --> 06:32.800]  we get a survey or we get a description or we get a combination of both but we don't
[06:32.800 --> 06:37.720]  get all the information that is available. Also because very often this information is
[06:37.720 --> 06:44.800]  not centralized in one sort of group of people. Some people have one part of the information
[06:44.800 --> 06:50.440]  other people have another part of the information. And then when I contact someone to obtain
[06:50.440 --> 06:56.760]  this information and if I have been using it for a while and then afterwards an update
[06:56.760 --> 07:01.400]  has been provided on this information how am I going to make sure that I am also getting
[07:01.400 --> 07:07.440]  this update. Because also in this world science is still moving on. We are still exploring
[07:07.440 --> 07:13.880]  new places underground. We are still finding new places, new caves and so all these kinds
[07:13.880 --> 07:20.000]  of information need to be shared as well because the survey that I was showing before is a
[07:20.000 --> 07:24.960]  very old one. There are already several newer versions of that available right now and so
[07:24.960 --> 07:30.080]  if I get this survey one day and a newer version is made the other day how am I going to make
[07:30.080 --> 07:35.520]  sure that I also get this if the person who sent me the first one is forgetting to also
[07:35.520 --> 07:43.600]  send me updates. For that there is a solution and this solution is GrottoCenter. So what
[07:43.600 --> 07:49.640]  is GrottoCenter? It is a sort of wiki database which is made for cavers and also mostly made
[07:49.640 --> 07:57.440]  by cavers. So there are a few people in France they have been starting developing a database
[07:57.440 --> 08:02.840]  which they use to store all the information and it is made public available so that everyone
[08:02.840 --> 08:11.240]  can use it. It is supported by the European Caving Federation and it is also supported
[08:11.240 --> 08:17.760]  by the International Caving Federation who also officially hosts some parts of this.
[08:17.760 --> 08:22.400]  The idea is to have a global source of all kinds of information about caves and caste
[08:22.400 --> 08:27.680]  phenomena and to have it with an open access so that everyone can access this information
[08:27.680 --> 08:32.600]  also with the idea to use standards so that all the information is saved in the same way
[08:32.600 --> 08:39.320]  and it is very easy for everyone to also add information and also query this. And because
[08:39.320 --> 08:45.200]  we are using standards we are also making it very easy to make it accessible by machines
[08:45.200 --> 08:55.400]  as well so that you can query this using APIs. How are we going to then use these kind of
[08:55.400 --> 09:01.040]  standards to make sure that everyone can access this information? For this we made a standard
[09:01.040 --> 09:06.400]  which is called CastLink and which enables us to link all the different documents to
[09:06.400 --> 09:13.800]  caves. For this we did not really try to reinvent the wheel, we just extended a tool which is
[09:13.800 --> 09:21.160]  from the W3C linked data and semantic web and this enables us to store the information
[09:21.160 --> 09:30.800]  in such a way that it is very easy to access also using machine readable ways such as APIs.
[09:30.800 --> 09:35.560]  And then you have Grotto Center itself so here you see the front page of the website
[09:35.560 --> 09:42.600]  where you have on the side menu bar which you can easily use to browse the information.
[09:42.600 --> 09:46.880]  If we then go, you can see there is a quick search and advanced search, I am going to
[09:46.880 --> 09:52.320]  skip those for a moment and I am going to skip to the map and then here you see a screenshot
[09:52.320 --> 09:57.640]  of a part of Belgium where you can also see all the hexagons which are indicating where
[09:57.640 --> 10:03.720]  our caves or cluster of caves. So these are just sort of caves bundled together, if you
[10:03.720 --> 10:08.640]  further zoom in then you can actually see over here you can see that there are also
[10:08.640 --> 10:13.000]  indicators which point where you can find certain caves and then you also have over
[10:13.000 --> 10:19.040]  there the pop-up which appears when you click on one of those points which provides us with
[10:19.040 --> 10:23.800]  some information like for example here which cave is being found at that location and then
[10:23.800 --> 10:29.640]  also a link to the data sheet of this cave. So this is the data sheet of that exact cave,
[10:29.640 --> 10:33.840]  you can see then where it is on the map, you can get some basic information such as for
[10:33.840 --> 10:40.080]  example the exact GPS coordinates, some information about how deep and how long the cave is when
[10:40.080 --> 10:44.520]  it's been discovered and then if you browse down here you can also find some information
[10:44.520 --> 10:49.360]  about for example the location, if you go down a bit more in the description you can
[10:49.360 --> 10:55.480]  also find documents such as the cave survey. Not all this information is of course very
[10:55.480 --> 11:00.600]  extended, it events very much on the people who add this information so this is one that
[11:00.600 --> 11:09.760]  has been created automatically using an import which is done during migration of Grotto Center
[11:09.760 --> 11:17.880]  from version 2 to version 3 but most of this information is being provided by users, it's
[11:17.880 --> 11:22.600]  just like Wikipedia, if I don't write a web page, a Wikipedia page about Grotto Center
[11:22.600 --> 11:28.000]  then there is no Wikipedia page available about Grotto Center. So this is information
[11:28.000 --> 11:33.000]  that can be shared by everyone, on the top there is also a login which enables you to
[11:33.000 --> 11:40.280]  add your information yourselves. How are we making this possible? We are using different
[11:40.280 --> 11:46.520]  technologies, the complete infrastructure is running on AWS and Microsoft Azure and
[11:46.520 --> 11:52.360]  we are using Docker to also host our application. For the rest we are using quite a lot of
[11:52.360 --> 11:59.920]  JavaScript, so there is NodeInvolved, there is Sales.js React. We are also using GitHub
[11:59.920 --> 12:06.560]  to host our code so you can also browse the code freely because this is of course, it's
[12:06.560 --> 12:12.760]  an open source project so the GitHub project is freely available, you can check out the
[12:12.760 --> 12:18.600]  code over there. For the rest you can also get in touch using our Slack channel. There
[12:18.600 --> 12:24.800]  is a wiki which explains how you can use this tool if you want to add information and then
[12:24.800 --> 12:29.680]  for the rest a few other links, for example here you have the wiki caves foundation. The
[12:29.680 --> 12:36.800]  wiki caves foundation is the foundation which is responsible for the project so Grotto Center
[12:36.800 --> 12:43.360]  is being officially organized by wiki caves. They are also making sure that all the funding
[12:43.360 --> 12:53.360]  and all the partners are being addressed. Then a link to what is called the documentation
[12:53.360 --> 12:59.720]  center of the International Caving Federation where you can find all the scientific documents.
[12:59.720 --> 13:04.200]  They have been imported into Grotto Center so these days if you are browsing information
[13:04.200 --> 13:10.640]  about specific caves then you can also find all the scientific bulletins linked to specific
[13:10.640 --> 13:17.520]  caves. And last link is one to the Cast Link project page where you can find more information
[13:17.520 --> 13:26.880]  as well as the current standard. So we are building this mostly with people who are doing
[13:26.880 --> 13:34.640]  a spillology and who are by accident also IT people but we are also very grateful that
[13:34.640 --> 13:40.600]  we from time to time get some interns from different schools that want to build on specific
[13:40.600 --> 13:48.600]  parts of our project to make it better and to also add more functionality. And for that
[13:48.600 --> 13:55.000]  we can rely on interns from the Polytech of Montpellier as well as the Epitech from Montpellier
[13:55.000 --> 14:02.240]  and the University of Grenoble. So many thanks to them as well. And now some of our partners
[14:02.240 --> 14:06.880]  I didn't list all of them because then my slide will be very full but there are quite
[14:06.880 --> 14:13.760]  a lot of caving clubs and caving associations, federations who are sponsoring the project
[14:13.760 --> 14:20.320]  and who are making it possible that we can build this and we can host this on an infrastructure
[14:20.320 --> 14:27.480]  that is also made that makes it possible that everyone can access this. So hereby I would
[14:27.480 --> 14:33.280]  like to conclude my presentation. If there are any questions and I am very eager to answer
[14:33.280 --> 14:38.760]  them and if you have any questions later you can also reach out to us on our Slack or GitHub
[14:38.760 --> 15:04.080]  or project pages. Thank you very much.