Do you remember the seed-and-cup experiment in elementary school? The stem goes up and the root goes down. What a simple yet profound wonder. I’m still fascinated by the process, as are my wife and children. Currently, my 10-year old daughter Elisabeth is growing an avocado tree—from an avocado pit in a jar. When I learned of the current project status from my chief junior agricultural engineer, our technical-assessment meeting went something like this:

ELISABETH: Look Dad! (Thrusting the Mason jar forward) The leaves are starting to sprout!

ME: Wow honey! That’s really neat (Taking keen interest. Pause) You know…you could chart how much it grows every day!

ELISABETH: Really?! You mean on some of that graph paper? The kind with the little squares?

ME: Ha! No no no. I think you’d run out of room too quickly. Could get too sloppy. I was thinking more like . . . an Excel spreadsheet. You enter your data. Then, we can develop a series of charts to track the growth rate.

ELISABETH: Data?

ME: Sure! You know: the date, plant height, weight, air and water temperature. That sort of thing. All the stuff you’d be interested in! Once you get all that, you can make some really sweet charts!

ELISABETH: Oh. (Disappointed) So…could I draw pictures of my avocado tree? (With renewed hopefulness)

ME: You bet! We’ll set up the digital camera on the tripod and take photos every day. Once they’re on the computer, I’ve got tracing software. It’ll make vector graphics from the photo. Extra line drawings will really highlight the daily changes in growth! We can set it up to run the conversion process nightly. What do you think?

ELISABETH: Good. I guess. It’s just… (Pause) I was hoping I could make a little report on my avocado tree—with the chart and the pictures together.

ME: Well sure we can combine them! We’d link the raw data and the graphs with the images. Once we gather all the data into Excel we can generate some nice reports…Well, actually… (Halts the furious pacing and talks to self) Hmmm…Maybe I should develop a web application with a database. That way the data entry might be a little easier for her and we could really leverage the results. Oooo… (Rubbing hands together) Make the reports in Crystal so we can group data, drill-down with hyperlinks …. (Turning again to Elisabeth) Well, don’t you worry head about the technical side! I have it covered!

ELISABETH: (With confidence) Good! ‘Cause I know Grandma and Grandpa would want to see a picture of our avocado tree.

ME: Elisabeth, you’ve hit the nail on the head! (Snapping finger) I almost forgot! We’ll hook up a webcam and get around-the-clock coverage with a website. That settles it; a web app for sure! (Aside) Definitely ASP.NET and SQL Server; we’ll have administrator and end-user windows! (To Elisabeth) How would you like to write a blog too? That way Grandma and Grandpa could get an update any time they want!

ELISABETH: So…Grandma and Grandpa would go to my website for an…avocado update?

ME: Avacadoupdate.com… (With enraptured whisper) Nice one! C’mon, let’s go grab the domain before someone else does!

ELISABETH: Dad, I wanted to send out a card to Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow. Can I sit here and draw a picture of my tree while you work on the website?

ME: You bet! (Pause reflectively) Boy, do I love plant science!

The stem is still going up; the root is still going down.

Tom Urbanowicz is the owner of DataDesignIT, helping businesses operate efficiently and communicate effectively. Tom can be reached at tom@datadesignit.com or at 530.513.1691.