On May 17, 2016, the Bacterial Pathogen Team of the Global Water Pathogen Project hosted a User Community Feedback workshop at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Water Microbiology Conference. The workshop was designed to “educate and advertise the GWPP” as a resource/tool for users (Academia, Industry, NGO, Public Health, Utilities, and Governmental Agencies) to use in their decision making processes. The workshop was attended by more than 50 participants, and editors of The Bacterial Pathogens Team (Nick Ashbolt, Jen Miller, Amy Pruden) were able to capture the feedback from the participants in topics ranging from “What other data sources do you currently use with respect to bacterial pathogens?,” Do you prefer to see summary statistics?,” and “What technologies are important to address?”
Jen Miller, an editor of the Bacterial Pathogen Team, reported that the participants “expressed unilateral interest in not just data presentation, but an educated ‘best estimate’ interpretation of data that can be cited and used as it relates to indicator and pathogen concentrations, and exploring molecular versus traditional culturing processes.”
With the two user community meetings (Leeds, UK and Chapel Hill, NC, USA), the GWPP has gained better insight regarding the needs and wants of the users of this resource. With two more user community meeting remaining (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Brisbane, Australia), the GWPP has more opportunities to gauge how the GWPP resource can be helpful in making decisions regarding sanitation and public health.