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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>*** I apologise to those who receive this by multiple
routes. ***<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Dear TDWG Members and Friends,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>We are just about at the mid-point between TDWG annual
meetings and activity within subgroups is at a natural low. This is however a
good time to review the status of all our projects and activities and to try to
identify the key things we would like to see happen during the rest of the year.
Biodiversity Informatics remains an active and developing area of research and
we are getting closer to supporting a new generation of biodiversity data
applications. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The recent launch of the Encyclopedia of Life demo pages is
a powerful reminder of several things. First, there is a great interest in marshalling
information on the world’s biodiversity. Secondly, there is an enormous
need for us to find new and faster ways to bring large quantities of
high-quality data online. Thirdly, we still have plenty of work ahead of us in
finding better ways to make all of these data interoperate freely so that they
can become part of a rich and developing store of knowledge. TDWG has a
critical role to play in ensuring that all this happens in a well-structured
way.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>TDWG is joining with a wide range of other biodiversity
informatics organisations to plan the e-Biosphere conference to be held in <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:City> in 2009. This
meeting is intended to showcase what is happening in our field and we must
consider what we would most like to have demonstrated in such a forum. What
are the big applications which our wider community could soon deliver to
support science and sound policy? What tools would we like to be able to put
in the hands of researchers, administrators or the general public? What do we
need to start doing now to make these possible?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I am of course facing these same questions in the Australian
context. When I consider the key areas where the Atlas of Living Australia
(ALA) needs to make rapid progress, TDWG has a significant role to play in all
of them. Some particular focus areas include:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<ul style='margin-top:0cm' type=disc>
<li class=MsoNormal style='mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Improving the quality and
management of metadata – the ALA needs a metadata repository to
manage information on biodiversity data sets and will be seeking to
develop a repository which is compatible both with other national
repositories and also with international developments in biodiversity
informatics<o:p></o:p></span></font></li>
<li class=MsoNormal style='mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Lowering the technical
threshold for sharing biodiversity data in structured forms – the <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">ALA</st1:place></st1:State> will be
exploring ways to package provider software tools as bundles requiring
minimal configuration (and will explore offering a centralised
installation of these tools for those who do not wish to maintain a web
server)<o:p></o:p></span></font></li>
<li class=MsoNormal style='mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Developing tools to support
online identification – we need to find efficient ways to exploit
structured descriptive data where it is available. We also need to
supplement these data with well-organised access to the original
literature, images, distribution data, etc. in an environment which guides
users to the best identifications possible.<o:p></o:p></span></font></li>
<li class=MsoNormal style='mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Managing data on species
interactions – I believe that the most significant class of data we
do not handle today is information on the trophic and other relationships
between taxa. Many new applications, and new ways to navigate
biodiversity data, would become feasible if we could organise what is
known in the literature of predator-prey, host-parasite, pollinator-plant
and other relationships. I would really like to explore text mining or
other approaches as routes to developing significant databases of such
information.<o:p></o:p></span></font></li>
</ul>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>These are some of the areas where I would like us to make
progress. What would you add to this list?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Finally, I must make an apology. At the TDWG meeting in <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bratislava</st1:place></st1:City>, I made a call
for those who would be interested in collaborating on developing a Java
implementation of TAPIR. Unfortunately I failed to do anything about this in
all the business of moving out to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>. I do however still know
of a couple of groups who would like to do this. If you have an interest in a
Java TAPIR implementation, and could contribute to making it happen, please let
me know (again) and I will try to get everyone concerned in contact with each
other.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Very best wishes,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Donald<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Donald Hobern, Director, Atlas of Living <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>CSIRO Entomology, GPO <st1:address w:st="on"><st1:Street
w:st="on">Box 1700</st1:Street>, <st1:City w:st="on">Canberra</st1:City></st1:address>,
ACT 2601<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Phone: (02) 62464352 <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Mobile</st1:place></st1:City>:
0437990208 <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Email: Donald.Hobern@csiro.au<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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