ProteomeCommons.org collaborative annotation and project management resource integrated with the Tranche repository.

ProteomeCommons.org has implemented a resource that incorporates concepts of Web 2.0 social networking for collaborative annotation of data sets placed in the Tranche repository. The annotation tools are part of a project management resource that is effective for individual laboratories or large distributed groups. The creation of the resource was motivated by the need for a way to encourage annotation of data sets with high accuracy and compliance rates. The system is designed to respond to the dynamic nature of research in an easy-to-use fashion through the use of a dynamic data model that does not inhibit the innovation that is important for basic research. Placing the annotation tool within a project manager allows annotation to occur over the life of the project and provides the security and monitoring capabilities needed for large or small collaborative projects. The resource effectively supports distributed groups of investigators working on common data sets and is available immediately at https://ProteomeCommons.org . In addition, a silver compliant data resource based on ProteomeCommons.org has been developed for cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) to allow much broader access to the annotations describing data sets in the Tranche repository.