[tdwg-content] RDF Task Group: next steps

[joel sachs]

Greeting to everyone in Nairobi and to TDWGers everywhere,

Members of the RDF task group [1] are already aware that Steve Baskauf 
stepped down as co-convenor earlier this year. It would be hard to 
overstate the extent and significance of Steve's efforts as co-convenor, 
culminating in the ratification of the Darwin Core RDF Guide [2] this past 
March. Steve is continuing his efforts towards clarity in biodiversity 
informatics as head of the Vocabulary Maintenance Specification task group 
[3].

With the release and ratification of the guide, together with the earlier 
work on term documentation  [4, 5]  we face the question "What next?". 
Options include i) disbanding; ii) reconvening as an Interest Group [6] 
with the broad mandate of keeping abreast of developments in RDF 
technology and best practises, and discussing how those developments 
could/should affect TDWG practises; and iii) continuing as a task group 
with a fresh, narrow mandate from the TAG. I invite perspectives and 
opinions on this, both from current task group members, and also from TDWG 
as a whole.

To those in Kenya, I wish you all a wonderful meeting!

Cheers,
Joel.

1. https://code.google.com/p/tdwg-rdf/
2. http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/guides/rdf/index.htm
3. https://github.com/tdwg/vocab/blob/master/README.md
4. overview of rationale: 
http://lists.tdwg.org/pipermail/tdwg-content/2014-July/003274.html
5. summary of decision: 
http://lists.tdwg.org/pipermail/tdwg-content/2014-November/003381.html
6. Recall that, in TDWG, Interest Groups foster discussion, seek to 
develop consensus around approaches to information sharing, and maintain 
and update products as required; Task Groups are created by Interest 
Groups to create specific products (such as best practices documents or 
vocabulary standards).