You are encouraged to use the
Upload Files Web Form.
If you have to use FTP, please provide the same information.
On the Upload Files Web Form
you will be asked to enter the following:
- Contact Info:
Please enter your contact information. It will not show on the Web
and is for internal use of CCL. We might have questions and need
to have your info on record. You are encouraged to provide the source of
the materials and list yourself as a contributor in the
README file, comments, and other documents that you upload.
- Type of materials:
Choose from the menu of different categories of materials:
software, data, documents, etc. If we did not think about
something, please choose "Other", and we will add the new
category at some point. If it is useful for chemists that
use computers, we will take it.
- Title for Submission:
This line of text will be linked to your directory in
the indices and directory listing(s). Do not use generic title like:
Software Upload or Data Example but rather say
what it does or what it is about, for exampe: Single-Triplet split for
biradicals or PDB Viewer in Java.
- Keywords/Search Terms:
These indexing terms are very important for Search Engines
(like Google) and will be added to the META tags
of the README file. They will make it easier for the
people to find the materials by using search engines.
- README:
For software, please provide a concise description of capabilities
and intended use together with pointers to more documentation or
other information. For data or documents provide some summary/abstract,
origin, etc. You can use plain text (remember about chopping long lines
as described in:
Dealing with text in the boxes).
In this case all URLs starting from
http:// or
ftp;// will be converted to
active links automatically. Also the file names that you uploaded
will be linked to the files, if their names appeared in the README text.
You can also submit the README in HTML format by starting with a
<html> tag and ending with
the </html>). In this
case no URLs or file names will be converted,
since you should do it yourself using HTML. If you want
to provide links to the files in the upload directory,
just use relative links, like:
<a href="molka-sources.tgz">molka-sources.tgz</a>.
In both cases, if there are e-mail addresses in the README file, they will
be obfuscated to protect them against collection by spambots (the
at sign (@) will be converted
to some easily recognizable gibberish and the note about it is automatically
included for the users).
The other files will not be scanned for e-mail addresses so
make sure that you understand that unmodified e-mail addresses in these
files might end up on spammers' email lists if you do not ibfuscate them.
- Additional Instructions:
Please help us to install it right on the Web site.
Suggest the section of CCL Web site where you would like us to put it.
If files need unpacking or additional processing, tell us how to do it.
If there are no suggestions for us, just say:
Ready to go or just
OK.
- Directory Name:
Please use something descriptive, like:
MolEditQuick_For_Windows,
Michaelis-Mentent_Constants_Fitting or
Table_Of_vdW_Radii.
Do not use spaces, use underscores or hyphens or you can use the
popular capitalisation technique of first letters of the word
- File Descriptions:
One lines description of file function, role, or content. For example:
Manual,
Makefile,
Configuration File,
LaTeX version of the paper
or Heats of Formation in Excel format.
- File to upload
You need to enter a full path to the file on your local computer.
You can use the [Browse] button to save typing. Due to security
protection built into most browsers, you will have to reenter
the file paths when you return to this page to make corrections.
I would be happy to preload these fields with their previous
content on the return to this page, but it would result in
security access violation in most browsers (Why? Imagine that
crackers preload this field with the
/etc/password and display it
in the white font on the white background). Please note that
file names can consist only of letters, digits, period, hyphen
and underscore. Other characters will be automatically converted
to underscore and the changes will be also made in the README file
if there are references to the original files. However, the
artificial intelligence has low IQ here, and if you can
provide only valid characters in the file names, you will see
less surprises. There is also a Rename options that
is quite useful, if the file names to be uploaded from
your local computer should be changed. They will be saved with
the name that is given in this field. If Rename entry
is blank, the original names are used.
When you enter everything, and click on [SUBMIT]
you will be sent to a page that shows the approximation of how
your contribution will look when moved to the public area of the CCL Web
site. You will be given a choice to accept it or correct it.
When you accept it, the CCL Server will send you an e-mail message
asking for confirmation. This step is needed to verify your
identity. Otherwise, the CCL Web site would soon become
a dumping grounds for copyrighted or illegal materials, porn,
and advertisements. Once you receive the message, please click
on the link provided in the message (or cut/paste it into
your browser if you are using a text based mail user agent),
so we know that your address was not misused by the evil-doers.
After reviewing the materials, you will get message from CCL informing
you where materials were placed in the CCL Archives.
Please note that the issue is non-trivial.
Allowing unrestricted and anonymous uploads to public
areas of the CCL Web site would immediately result in tons of
illegal (copyrighted, proprietary) or offensive material showing on the
CCL server. Moreover, someone has to check that
the uploaded materials can be publicly distributed and are
not restricted. These dangers of today's Internet are annoying
and demand additional attention, scrutiny and time. I tried to find a way
to share this burden between contributors (you) and
administrators (me). For this reason, you review
and document the materials and make sure that they are OK,
and I put them on the web. Note that I need your contact information
in case when I would need your help. The contact information will not
be posted on the Web. However, you are encouraged to
provide your contact information in the README file
and/or in the documentation, so people can reach you
if they have a question or would like to collaborate.
- Describe and annotate:
Have you ever found a software on the Web and read
through the
README,
INSTALL,
RELEASE-NOTES, etc.,
and still did not know WHAT THE HECK DOES THIS THING DO?,
WHAT IS IT? or WHAT THE HECK I AM SUPPOSED TO DO
TO MAKE IT RUN?.
I had been there many times. Please write a constructive
README file that starts from short description of
capabilities and intended use. Provide additional documentation
if possible. Less is more in the README file, so treat it
as an executive summary that points to devil is in
the details, i.e, additional documentation.
Make sure that the files have descriptive names and/or follow
accepted naming conventions. Descriptive name of the
top directory is VERY IMPORTANT. Make sure that
it conveys the essence. For example:
Java_Molecular_Viewer,
TDDFT_Overview,
Quantum_MC_Literature_Database,
Notes_On_NWCHEM_Compilation_and_Install
or ZPE_Energies_and_Frequencies_Results.
Beside the longer documents,
add one-line descriptions for each file to help the potential
users of the material. Do not assume that they are top notch
gurus. Many come here to learn. So make sure that you address the
needs of seasoned professionals but also the students who would
like to try it and to learn how you use it. If you are uploading
software please provide some examples of input/output. The most
difficult thing is to do it the first time and examples
help a lot.
- Verify:
Before you click on [Finalize the upload], try to download
the thing that you have just uploaded and make sure
that TAR or ZIP archives unpack well and that they are
free from virus. Make sure that the README page shows fine
on the Web. It is easier to correct materials through the
Web interface than to undo mistakes when they are installed.
Moreover, it is easier to correct materials when you are
on it than to fix it few months from now, when you do not
remember the details. When people get the files from the Web,
and the files do not work/unpack/show-up, people will send e-mails
to CCL administrator, and he will have a hard time to answer their
questions. And he may bug you in turn. If it is worth doing,
it is worth doing right as my Mom used to say when
I did not wash the dishes well...
- Announce:
Once the CCL admin puts materials into some public area
of the CCL Web site and you are informed about the final location,
please announce it to the CCL List. This will generate more
interest, It will also help those who may benefit from your
contribution. Moreover, you may prompt other CCL Subscribers
to share their goodies and make CCL Archives better for
them and for you.
With the growing size of CCL archives and
the amount of time needed to keep this site running in the
hostile Internet environment, the CCL Administrator needs your
help and collaboration. Disk space is quite cheap and you
can always buy more, while time cannot be replaced.
There are thousands of CCL Subscribers, but there cannot
be thousands of CCL administrators (as the old Polish
proverb says: "when you have six cooks, you have nothing
to eat"). And you are not a cook (I am), you are
a patron. Contribute materials that you would
find useful yourself. It does not need to be a voluminous software
package, but may be just a short and useful utility or script.
It does not have to be a database of 1000s of ab initio
runs, but an example of some data file to perform some nontrivial (or trivial,
for educational purposes) calculations. It does not have
to be a Nobel Prize winning paper, but a write-up on some topic
that you used for teaching or a training presentation. It can be
anything that can be useful for members of the CCL community.
Nothing is too big and nothing is too small. It even
does not have to be your own creation, but if it is
free to distribute, and you found it potentially helpful or
interesting, please help the CCL administrator and upload it to CCL.
It is in everyone's best interest to keep this site useful
and make it better and more informative.
If you help, others will also feel committed to help.
Here are some points to consider:
- To share:
While science and learning becomes more and
more commercialized, some of us feel that it is going too far.
The problem is reviewed, for example, in a landmark work of
Jennifer Washburn: University, Inc.: The Corporate Corruption
of American Higher Education and other recent publications.
With the escalating costs of modern research, stagnating
(or often diminishing) support for academia, and general social
disrespect for sciences and arts in the modern society, the
trend is inevitable. Yes, there is a growing number of
government programs that target specific areas
perceived as important for national interests
that will result in technology transfer. But I often
feel that they are more about convincing the electorate
that we are spending your tax dollars (or euros or whatever) wisely
rather than about supporting science and education. Yet, without
the sincere knowledge sharing there is no science and learning.
So please contribute to the community and help keep the open discourse
and exchange alive. Someone may even say: Thank you!.
- To shine:
The CCL archives are getting thousands of hits a day.
They are also indexed by all major Search Engines. It will be
easier to find your contribution if it is also available
on the well visited Web site. Please include links to your
Web site, so it facilitates access for those who may be
interested in your work. Make sure that you include
a copyright note and/or conditions of use, so your work is
properly cited, referenced, and acknowledged.
And the citations will work for you -- you can use them
to claim the impact of your work, to request funding
and to justify your time,
If it is not your own material, include your name
and Website in the README file, so you or your work
can be found easier on Google. It will give you
the deserved appreciation and respect since you took
the time to help others.
- To Archive:
There are tons of materials on the Web that come and go.
You saved a link to a useful site, and when you dig it
out from your Bookmarks file later on, you often see a terrible
heading: "Page not found". The CCL is here for over 15 years
and it will hopefully be here for next 15 years (health and
cash flow allowing...). Depositing something in CCL Archives
will give it some aspect of permanency and stability.
It will also make the materials easier to find and to cite, since
they will show up on Google and also in the CCL's own
Search Engine.
- To Collaborate:
Many collaborations, cooperations, exchanges, etc. were
initiated through the CCL discourses and archives.
Many benefited from the fact that they could make others
know about their research interests. The benefits of
Internet spanning the Globe are enormous. Moreover,
some people have more time than resources and some
have more resources than time. Your contribution may
result in joint papers that you could not have done
by yourself and also in consulting or speaker
engagements.
Thank you for your support of CCL.
Jan Labanowski, Ph.D.
Computational Chemistry List, Ltd.
