PIRE+websites

=List of websites you explored =

Best:
 * **PIRE Mongolia** very simple, intuitive, wonderful pictures (Andy Kilmer). Practical and really useful as spreading tool. However, could be a non-pleasant experience if visitor does not have a scientific background. (Aldo Rincon)
 * **Speciation in Patagonia** fairly simple, you are able to wade through loads of information to get at what you want. (Andy Kilmer). It considers general public in the Public Interest section (Luz Helena Oviedo). Includes a useful research area map that makes SMART goals information more accessible (Aldo Rincon)
 * **Intraplate Earthquakes** Easy to use website, with readily accessible information. There are lots of pictures and relevant people to contact for more information are listed on each page. (Sarah Allen)
 * Amazon PIRE Organized and complete information about the project: objectives, opportunities, events, press coverage (Luz Helena Oviedo). Nicely summarized showing an interesting outreach proposal. In many ways, this model could fit accurately into a PCP-PIRE web page regarding mentoring and experience-based field work. Although includes somehow lots of formal scientific language, visitor can go further in the SMART goals and other earth system science questions, in this sense, the visitor can catch what PIRE does pursuit. Besides its latin american component, there is no a bilingual version nor granted access to a publications site (Aldo Rincon)

Good: > ** The Summer Nanotechnology Study Program in Japan ** > This website provides lots of links on related topics right from the home page. The program involves sending American students to Japan to study, and they were very thoughtful in including several headings on the practicalities of living in Japan, including being vegetarian, halal, and kosher. They included student profiles with pictures showing the actual faces involved in the program, a definite plus. There is a wealth of information in this website, but it’s a little awkward to navigate and does not have a lot of science-related pictures. The news feed on the homepage is good, but needs to be updated more frequently. The website has a current research tab with broader impacts and intellectual merit highlighted, which is good, but the long series of paragraphs is not easily digested and has no photographs or diagrams to explain their research agenda. (Alex Hastings)
 * **Partnership for Volcanological Research and Education**-nice start, simple, website not fleshed out, however. (Andy Kilmer)
 * **A global living laboratory for cyberinfrastructure application enablement** A really confusing site. Tons of great information! News, talks, press coverage, testimonials, a link to a facebook page... there is a lot of stuff to explore. However, the homepage bombards the first-time user with tons of information and doesn't explain things with an introduction. I don't know what PIRE is, I don't know what cyberinfrastructure is. There are FAQ and About sections that answer these questions, but you have to dig for them. (Andy Kilmer) Grants access to a huge amount of publications and additional products as such as presentations, posters, etc. Additionally, the design should be updated. (Aldo Rincon)
 * **Electron Chemistry and Catalysis at Interfaces**This website had all the information, but it was just not quite as accessible as the other site I looked at. It needed a bit more polishing and re-organization. I might also just be biased because I think earthquakes are more interesting than this. (Sarah Allen)
 * [|Golondrinas de las Americas]This website is easy to read and find the necessary information. It also has great pictures. (Carson Phillips). Very complete information about Data Collection Protocols (Luz Helena Oviedo)
 * [|NanoJapan]

Not so good:
 * **Investigation of Meaning Representations in Language Understanding for Speech Reconstruction and Machine Translation Systems**This page is almost too simple. Everything is posted on one page. There are no pictures and the white background is kind of garish. The German companion site at least has an aesthetically pleasing font. Some of the links don't work. There are no dates anywhere. I had to look at the German site to determine that this is one of the older PIRE projects. (Andy Kilmer)
 * [|Genetics of Invasive Species] This page is sufficient and lays out the basic information of their PIRE. There is too much text and it could be more reader friendly. It is in paragraph/report form. There should also be more photos (Carson Phillips)
 * SPIRE It is too simple and the design is not very friendly. The project recruits Journalism undergrad students that post information about participant's experiences (News section). It is good material but the page does not take advantage of it (Luz Helena Oviedo).
 * @http://pire.fiu.edu/research.php. Too many social pictures make this web page slightly boring (Aldo Rincon)