TROPICS stood for Tropical Forest Projects Information System.

I developed this for the European Commission under unusual circumstances.

I had begun working for the Overseas Development Institute a few months after leaving university. I wanted to work in international aid, but could not afford to do the usual year abroad and masters to enter the sector. Instead I applied for a job as temporary maternity cover for ODI's IT Assistant, hoping to move up within the sector. I quickly already impressed people, doing a range of things outside my job description, including for the humanitarian aid team.

Then someone from the forestry department showed me a puzzle they were saddled with. The department had been awarded a large research grant from the European Commission, to produce a Sourcebook on the history of forestry and aid on the continent. Tacked onto the end of the contract, seemingly as an afterthought, was the output of some kind of database. Nobody had any idea what to do about this, but they had to deliver something, and time was running out.

I quickly understood that I had no way to force busy people, in a wide range of agencies, to provide information for a database. I also realised a database would be a pretty useless output on it's own, if nobody was accessing it. A few years later, a visit to the dusty archives of records in the basement of FAO in Rome vindicated that initial instinct.

I already had years of experience importing and manipulating large datasets, in various formats, for a family business. The family tree project I was running also taught me how to create websites to present complex, linked information. This suggested a way forward.

Visiting and talking to people at the various agencies, in Brussels to begin with, we soon devised ways of importing the reusing records and reports they already had.

Simple transparent public access to the information, via a website, was key to making it useful, and creating subtle pressures to keep it updated. Fortunately the European Commission had fairly standardised access to the relatively new internet, via Netscape browsers.

Tables and image sizes were new features in HTML, and allowed me to create colourful interfaces and simple bar charts, making complex data easier to grasp.

The system was very well received. Soon people were asking me about projects funded by their own departments within the European Commission, which suffered from lots of staff turnover.

The TROPICS system existed on ODI's website until a few years ago, and I am posting an archive here.