Normally I write my blog posts weeks sometimes months in advance. Looking through my list I discovered this morning that the cupboard was bare, barren, empty even.

What to do?

I wasn’t certain at first. Should I finish off my new blog about taskjuggler (I can not stress how amazing that software is) or do I write something new. If something new then what about?

The answer came to me after reading a thread on LinkedIn by Kyo Sung Park.

> > > > > > ### Want to listen the opinion about a MOF database (papers, patents, and presentation) > > .Are you interested if there is a database including MOF-related papers, patents and presentations having several keywords such as porous/non-porous, metals, linkers. It is updated everyday(almost) and have a link to the journal's website. If asked, updated contents are sent by email. Want to listen your opinion about this. > > > > > > March 10, 2011 > >

Now for some reason or another the post must have been updated as it appears to have originally been submitted when Park and I both worked at the University of Liverpool.

The basic premiss is that Park has created a Zotero database of publications and or information all related to MOF/COF/ZIF and other porous materials. He wanted to know what the community thought of it. Now I didn’t see the post until this week so I had not replied until then. But it seemed to me that this could be handled in a couple of ways. It also seemed to me like an interesting project.

Now many years ago there used to be a database of zeolites. Searching for it however turned up very little. Well in that all the links to the database appeared to be dead.

Several pages on zeolites have been prepared by [Dr Patrick O'Malley's](http://trigger.ch.umist.ac.uk:8081/zeolites/web/intro.htm) research group at the Chemistry Department, UMIST, Manchester, M60 1QD, UK. A very comprehensive [zeolite database](http://trigger.ch.umist.ac.uk:8081/zeolites/web/indexes.htm) which resembles the ATLAS OF ZEOLITE STRUCTURE TYPES is available and this site also provides an [introduction to zeolites](http://trigger.ch.umist.ac.uk:8081/zeolites/web/intro.htm).

As you can see the database links point to trigger which was a UMIST machine. In fact just like I ran xray from the UMIST chemistry domain. It looks like trigger got put down at some point and now it no longer exists. Never fear though because the WayBack Machine is out there letting you go back to old websites in the past! I don’t want to say aged much but well the website has not matured well. Saying that no more than mine I guess?

But looking over the old pages I think what Park was talking about did exist once. Now in the same thread Aldrich pointed out that they also had a database as well. Which looks pretty cool.

So why am I bringing all this up?

Well obviously not having anything to post for today’s blog could be one reason but I think it is another. We all start little projects. I started the Son of Sincris or SoS a database for chemistry and Crystallography software but I never made it public and parked the project. Patrick clearly invested time in his Zeolite database but it was lost once his server was unplugged. Would there be an advantage to making a new database one including all the Zeolites, MOFs, COFs etc. A new website of information about published and unpublished structures? A source of information on papers and posters.

I think there would be most definitely. Could I make such a site - yes I think I could quite easily. Already I can see several approaches from custom written code to using an existing content management website. But If I am going to produce a porous materials database or PMD I would need help in populating it with information. Could I use a “planet” approach to populate it with feeds from journals?

So I think I would like the opportunity to undertake such a project the problem comes down to time and costs. Hosting such as site is not free. I already have the site, I could recall my old domain for it and host it with my other services such as this blog and the forum.

But you may ask what would happen if you choose not to host the site anymore? Now this is a good question but I think it is the same answer I would give if I ever decided that I could no longer support the forum. I would ask the IUCr if they would take over hosting it. So I am not worried about that at all.

And perhaps whilst I am building the planet MOF or PMD or whatever you want to call it website. I could finally get around to finishing SoS and making it live?