Working Group Meetings
As we develop the project we are convening open working group sessions, generally every other week, to discuss a wide range of aspects of the database. We hope to include technical, scientific, and freeform discussion in these meetings. Our plan is to make videos or transcripts available here.
Sessions
All sessions held 9-10:00 am Central Time
Join on Zoom from this link: https://stthomas.zoom.us/j/92844255681
2026–27 Academic Year
| Date | Session | Topic | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 20, 2026 | 14 | Ingesting Data From the Literature. | Meeting Minutes |
| October 6, 2026 | 13 | “Lumpers and Splitters”: What constitutes a record? | Meeting Minutes |
| September 22, 2026 | 12 | Welcome back! Progress on the Database Web App | Meeting Minutes |
2025–26 Academic Year
| Date | Session | Topic | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 17, 2026 | 11 | What is necessary for the first public release of the database? | Meeting Minutes |
| June 19, 2026 | 10 | A better data ingestion workflow inspired by Pablo! | Meeting Minutes |
| June 5, 2026 | 9 | Biogenicity indicators and addressing the term “microbialite” | Meeting Minutes |
| May 22, 2026 | 8 | Problematic deposits: addressing the morphology and textures of tufa and travertine in spring systems (Thomas Garner, Ulster University) | Meeting Minutes |
| May 8, 2026 | 7 | What should a data ingestion workflow look like, practically-speaking? | Meeting Minutes |
| April 24, 2026 | 6 | Invited guest Erik Sperling (Stanford University) will join us to discuss how the Sedimentary Geochemistry and Paleoenvironments Project works and what we can learn from his experience. | Meeting Minutes |
| April 10, 2026 | 5 | Establishing and adopting the data governance charter and a tiered deployment plan (with issues of intended audience and more) | Meeting Minutes |
| March 27, 2026 | 4 | Non-genetic Descriptors of Microstructures: Can we develop a microfacies classification? | Meeting Minutes and Video Recording |
| March 13, 2026 | 3 | Non-genetic Descriptors of Mesostructures: Metadata that describes microbialite features at the hand-sample scale; the building blocks of larger structures. | Meeting Minutes and Video Recording |
| February 27, 2026 | 2 | Non-genetic Descriptors of Megastructures and Macrostructure: Metadata that describes the largest microbialite features. | Meeting Minutes and Video Recording |
| February 13, 2026 | 1 | Projects, Collections, and Published Literature: Metadata that describes the big picture for our samples. | Meeting Minutes and Video Recording |