About GeyserTimes
The Developers
Jake Young - Founder, Lead Web Developer, and Assistant Android Developer
Jake is a Yellowstone addict and has been visiting the park since he was very young. He loves everything that Yellowstone has to offer (not just geysers), but especially the backcountry and exploring. While between careers, Jake started GeyserTimes.org to collect geyser eruption data with the hope of one day being able to use it to rule the world. Actually, he really just wanted to predict Beehive Geyser (evidence: Beehive Geyser's ID number is 1; Old Faithful's is 2!). He has a degree in Mathematics with a concentration in Actuarial Science from Michigan Tech University.
Jake hopes you enjoy using GeyserTimes as much as he enjoys working on it.
Will Boekel - Lead Android Developer and Assistant Web Developer
Will started gazing in the fall of 2011 and is on the board of directors for the Geyser Observation and Study Association. Will currently works the summers at the Old Faithful Lodge Front Desk. When in the park Will enjoys to spend most of his time watching and studying Fan & Mortar Geysers. Although, you may find him cruising around the Upper Geyser Basin when Fan & Mortar are not due to erupt. When not in the Park Will enjoys partaking in skiing, climbing, hiking, running, and watching the Old Faithful webcams when time allows. Also Will currently studies Mechanical Engineering at Montana State University (GO CATS!) in Bozeman, MT.
Alan Glennon - GeyserTimes Scientific Advisory Board and Assistant Web Developer
Alan has worked as a professor, hydrologist, park ranger, barbecue cook, and playground builder, and is now starting a logistics software company with several grad school friends. Besides Yellowstone, he has visited geyser fields in Chile, Iceland, New Zealand, and the Azores. Alan coordinates the GeyserTimes Scientific Advisory Board -- a group tasked to maximize the quality, consistency, and utility of the database.
Tom Altstidl - Lead iOS Developer and Assistant Android Developer
Tom, who actually lives in the Bavarian Alps, saw his very first geyser eruption when he was just thirteen months old. For more than 15 years now he visits Yellowstone once a year despite the distance. His favourite geysers are Morning, Artemisia and (Great) Fountain. He also enjoys a lot of other national parks in the American Southwest, the West Coast and Canada. Hooked not only to geysers, but also to programming apps and computers he started studying computer science at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in the fall of 2015. He is especially interested in Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence.
The Data
Eruption data is collected by people and people make mistakes--it's not a perfect process.
There are errors in the data.
Such is the nature of collecting information for natural processes that continually change.
Nobody gets paid to do this stuff (although I will entertain offers!) so it's a labor of love.
GeyserTimes.org also hosts electronic logger data from the National Park Service:
The National Park Service shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and/or contained herein. These data and related graphics are not legal documents and are not intended to be used as such. The information contained in these data is dynamic and may change over time. The data are not better than the original sources from which they were derived. It is the responsibility of the data user to use the data appropriately and consistent within the limitations of the data in general. The National Park Service gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of these data.
Some individuals have contributed a lot to the geyser data cause:
Ralph Taylor has done amazing work for years with his electronic loggers and data interpretation.
Lynn Stephens has done a lot of typing and deciphering of handwriting in transcribing the Old Faithful Visitor Center logbook.
Geyser gazers everywhere, from seasonal volunteers to week-long vacationers to webcam watchers, have given a great deal too.
Open Source
GeyserTimes is built with php, MySQL and a host of other open source tools.
Update History:
Visit our blog to see our site update history: GeyserTimes System Updates Blog