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Darwin Core Hour #6: Where am I, exactly? Darwin Core Georeferencing Terms
by Deborah Paul 11 Jul '17

11 Jul '17

Greetings TDWG! One week from today - find out precisely where you are - via Darwin Core Hour #6: Where am I, exactly? Darwin Core Georeferencing Terms Abstract: In this chapter of the Darwin Core Hour series, we will look in depth at two Darwin Core georeferencing terms that can be confusing when sharing location data: coordinateUncertaintyInMeters and coordinatePrecision. We will cover these specific Location terms, along with related terms needed to understand their definitions, importance, and uses. Finally, we will use these terms to demonstrate the process by which community feedback leads to improved Darwin Core documentation. Please bring your insights, community experience, and questions surrounding locality data issues. Presenters: David Bloom, John Wieczorek Date, Time: Tuesday, 11 July at 8am PDT, 11am EDT, 12pm GMT-3 Where: https://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/room References: Darwin Core Location terms: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/index.htm#locationindex BioGeomancer Guide to Best Practices in Georeferencing: http://www.gbif.org/resource/80536 Darwin Core Georeferences Questions & Answers page: https://github.com/tdwg/dwc-qa/wiki/Georeferences MVZ and iDigBio GWG Guide for Recording Localities in Field Notes http://www.idigbio.org/sites/default/files/working-groups/gwg/GoodBadLocali… Hints for best Adobe Connect experience: https://www.idigbio.org/wiki/index.php/Web_Conferencing Brought to you by the Darwin Core Hour Team - Connecting Biodiversity Data Communities Deb Paul, et al -- -- Upcoming iDigBio Events https://www.idigbio.org/calendar -- Deborah Paul, iDigBio Digitization and Workforce Training Specialist iDigBio -- Steering Committee Member, SPNHC Liaison and Member-At-Large, SYNTHESYS3 Representative Institute for Digital Information, 234 LSB Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306 850-644-6366

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bioRxiv preprint: To increase trust, change the social design behind aggregated biodiversity data
by Nico Franz 30 Jun '17

30 Jun '17

Dear TDWG: Bit of a different, social angle here on the biodiversity aggregation/trust issue. Hopefully of interest to some. (and apologies for cross posting) Cheers, Nico http://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/28/157214 Abstract Growing concerns about the quality of aggregated biodiversity data are lowering trust in large-scale data networks. Aggregators frequently respond to quality concerns by recommending that biologists work with original data providers to correct errors "at the source". We show that this strategy falls systematically short of a full diagnosis of the underlying causes of distrust. In particular, trust in an aggregator is not just a feature of the data signal quality provided by the aggregator, but also a consequence of the social design of the aggregation process and the resulting power balance between data contributors and aggregators. The latter have created an accountability gap by downplaying the authorship and significance of the taxonomic hierarchies - frequently called "backbones" - they generate, and which are in effect novel classification theories that operate at the core of data-structuring process. The Darwin Core standard for sharing occurrence records plays an under-appreciated role in maintaining the accountability gap, because this standard lacks the syntactic structure needed to preserve the taxonomic coherence of data packages submitted for aggregation, leading to inferences that no individual source would support. Since high-quality data packages can mirror competing and conflicting classifications, i.e., unsettled systematic research, this plurality must be accommodated in the design of biodiversity data integration. Looking forward, a key directive is to develop new technical pathways and social incentives for experts to contribute directly to the validation of taxonomically coherent data packages as part of a greater, trustworthy aggregation process.

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Registration and abstract submission now open for TDWG 2017
by James Macklin 15 Jun '17

15 Jun '17

Dear Colleagues, We are happy to announce that Registration and Abstract Submission for the TDWG 2017 meeting are now open. Registration is available at the conference website <https://tdwg.github.io/conferences/2017/>, and instructions for abstract submission can be found here <https://tdwg.github.io/conferences/2017/call-for-abstracts/instructions/>. The deadline for submission is July 14. Camera-ready copy will be due Sept. 5. In a change for TDWG, abstract submission this year will be done through the Pensoft ARPHA platform. Many of you are already familiar with ARPHA, which supports and facilitates collaborative authoring, manuscript review, feedback to authors, publication, and post-publication review and discussion. One of the benefits that will come from this is that abstracts will be published in Proceedings of TDWG, hosted by Pensoft. Published abstracts will be assigned DOIs, and will be available for post-publication review. The TDWG 2017 organizing committee has worked with Pensoft to customize the ARPHA workflow in a way that makes sense for TDWG. Please note that you can add references, a figure, a table, and supplementary materials without these being counted towards your total word limit. It is likely that there will be some hiccups, and we ask for your patience throughout the process. Help is available via the ARPHA tool's "Helpdesk" icon, or via email to tdwgproceedings(a)pensoft.net. As previously announced, TDWG 2017 has a rich collection of workshops and symposia <https://tdwg.github.io/conferences/2017/program/> to which you can contribute. Abstracts are required for oral presentations, computer demonstrations, and posters. The only exception is “wild ideas” (see below), which do not require abstracts. These categories are described below. Types of ContributionsSymposia or Workshop Presentations The backbone of a TDWG meeting are its symposia and workshops. A symposium is typically a collection of talks, sometimes with a panel or open discussion. A workshop may have talks, but typically encourages more active engagement through training activities or through facilitated discussion around a key issue. Accepted symposia and workshops are listed here <https://tdwg.github.io/conferences/2017/program/> <https://tdwg.github.io/conferences/2017/program/>along with an indication of whether or not the symposium/workshop organizers are accepting unsolicited submissions. If you would like to give a talk, you should first see if any open workshops/symposia match your topic. Other Oral Presentations If no workshop or symposium is suitable, you can submit your abstract to the "Other Oral Presentation" category. The organizing committee will attempt to schedule similar talks in the same session. Computer demonstrations We will provide an opportunity for live computer demonstrations. Note that rooms for these presentations may have WiFi connections only (not wired), and you are advised to have a backup plan should the internet connection not work to your satisfaction. Posters We will provide dedicated space for posters and at least one dedicated poster session on the agenda. Instructions on poster size will be announced closed to the conference, and posted on the FAQ <http://tdwg.us9.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=50f3cc44307841383062ca0d6&id…> . 5-Minute Wild Ideas/Unconference Towards the end of the conference, we will have a “Wild Ideas” session, with talks selected via an unconference <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference>-style procedure. Abstracts are not be required for this category of submission. We look forward to your contributions and to seeing you in Ottawa in October. Sincerely, The 2017 Program Committee

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DwC Hour 5: DwC Standards in Practice: Introduction to Sharing Data Using the GBIF IPT
by Deborah Paul 08 Jun '17

08 Jun '17

Hello TDWG!, Darwin Core (DwC) Hour #5 is almost here: DwC Standards in Practice: Introduction to Sharing Data Using the GBIF IPT. Go Here for Webinar Details and Meeting Link: https://www.idigbio.org/content/darwin-core-hour-dwc-standards-practice-int… ABSTRACT. This webinar introduces the GBIF IPT, the most widely used tool to publish and share biodiversity data through the GBIF network. Demonstrating how to publish a species occurrence dataset, special emphasis will be given to how to properly map fields to /DwC terms/ while complying with vocabularies and making sure to satisfy GBIF’s required and recommended terms. It will end with a brief look at the tool’s roadmap, with some essential information all IPT administrators need to be made aware of. Please bring or submit questions for open discussions in each webinar: https://tinyurl.com/zja2muz When: Tuesday, June 13th, 10 AM EDT, 9AM CDT, 4 PM CEST Where: https://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/room Presenters: Kyle Braak - IPT Product Manager for GBIF, Laura Russell - Program Officer for Participation and Engagement at GBIF, Carole Sinou - Research Officer in Biodiversity for Canadensys. Moderators: Gary Motz, Erica Krimmel EXTRAs. 1. Explore the Darwin Core Questions & Answers wiki! https://github.com/tdwg/dwc-qa/wiki - where all Darwin Core Hour (DwC) materials can be found. 2. See which of your questions have been asked and answered so far https://github.com/tdwg/dwc-qa/issues 3. Submit your question / volunteer (yourself or someone) to do a webinar on your darwin core topic: https://tinyurl.com/zja2muz 4. Here's a list of terms for which DwC recommends use of a controlled vocabulary - note many are in the Location class. https://github.com/tdwg/dwc-qa/wiki/Controlled-Vocabularies 5. See what's inside some of the DwC fields that suggest using a controlled vocabulary (data from GBIF, iDigBio, VertNet, and soon ALA): https://github.com/tdwg/dwc-qa/tree/master/data 6. Future DwC Hour webinars coming up feature discussions about Darwin Core locality terms and sharing georeferenced locality data, and Aggregators sharing how they process data provided by the community. See you soon! Happy Darwin Core and Data Quality, :-) Deb, et al from the iDigBio Data Mgmt Interest Group and the Darwin Core Hour Team (please kindly excuse cross-postings!) Webinar series brought to you by the iDigBio Data Management Interest Group (DMI). We welcome input for this series from everyone worldwide. We plan to make this happen 1x month. We use Adobe Connect for our webinars. See https://www.idigbio.org/wiki/index.php/Web_Conferencing for hints on best experience (hint: use headsets!) -- -- Upcoming iDigBio Events https://www.idigbio.org/calendar -- Deborah Paul, iDigBio Digitization and Workforce Training Specialist iDigBio -- Steering Committee Member, SPNHC Liaison, SYNTHESYS3 Representative Institute for Digital Information, 234 LSB Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306 850-644-6366

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Job opening at the GBIF Secretariat
by Federico Mendez 02 Jun '17

02 Jun '17

Hi everyone, the GBIF Secretariat is currently seeking applications for a Software Developer, see complete details here: http://www.gbif.org/newsroom/news/gbif-seeks-software-developer<http://www.gbif.org/newsroom/news/web-developer-job-2017> Deadline for applications is Monday, 17 July 2017. The selected candidate is expected to live in Denmark, and a relocation package is available for internationally recruited staff. Please feel free to share this position with your own networks and contacts. Thanks, Federico Mendez fmendez(a)gbif.org<mailto:fmendez@gbif.org> skype: fede.mendez Lead Software Developer

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Announcing Workshops and Symposia for TDWG 2017
by James Macklin 18 May '17

18 May '17

Dear Colleagues, We are excited to announce the list of accepted workshops and symposia at TDWG 2017, viewable here <https://tdwg.github.io/conferences/2017/program/>. Abstract submission, which will be via the Pensoft ARPHA tool, will be available soon. In the meantime, we invite you to begin considering your contributions to this year's meeting. Abstracts are required for all oral presentations (with the exception of “wild ideas”, see below), computer demonstrations, and posters. These categories are described below. Types of Contributions: Symposia or Workshop Presentations The backbone of a TDWG meeting are its symposia and workshops. At TDWG, a symposium is typically a collection of talks, sometimes with a panel or open discussion; a workshop may have talks, but typically encourages more active engagement through training activities, or through facilitated discussion around a key issue. Accepted symposia and workshops are listed here <https://tdwg.github.io/conferences/2017/program/>, along with an indication of whether or not the symposium/workshop is accepting submissions. If you would like to give a talk, you should see if any open workshops/symposia are suitable. Other Oral Presentations If no workshop or symposium is suitable, you can submit your abstract to the "Other Oral Presentation" track. Accepted abstracts will be arranged so that talks on similar subjects are in the same session. Computer demonstrations We will provide an opportunity for live computer demonstrations. Note that rooms for these presentations may have WiFi connections only (not wired), and you may want to have a backup plan should the internet connection not work to your satisfaction. Posters We will provide dedicated space for posters, and at least one dedicated poster session on the agenda. Instructions on poster size will be posted nearer the conference. 5-Minute Wild Ideas/Unconference Towards the end of the conference, we will have a “Wild Ideas” session, with talks selected via an unconference <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference>-style procedure. Abstracts will not be required for these. Best, James Macklin (Local Committee Chair) & Joel Sachs (Program Chair)

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BigDig 2017: High Throughput Digitization for Natural History Collections
by Stanley Blum 08 May '17

08 May '17

Hello TDWG and a special shout-out to TDWG'ers in New Zealand and greater Oceania, Please help the BigDig organizing committee reach a worldwide audience with this call for papers. Deadline: June 30th, 2017. RE: BigDig 2017: High Throughput Digitization for Natural History Collections DETAILS here: http://www.wikicfp.com/cfp/servlet/event.showcfp?eventid= 63603&copyownerid=49294 WHAT is it? A one-day workshop held in conjunction with the 13th IEEE International Conference on eScience (http://escience2017.org.nz/) WHEN: 24—27 October 2017 WHERE: Auckland, New Zealand The BigDig workshop will focus on high-throughput digitization, driven by the keen need to move the world’s physical collections into the digital realm where they are safer from the ravages of time, can be used by larger numbers of scientists and the public, and can contribute in new ways to the study of biodiversity. Topics of interest include but are not limited to: * Digitization technologies for high-throughput 2D and 3D capture of collection objects * Instrumentation strategies and algorithms * Specimen handling, label information capture, OCR, crowd-sourced label transcription, 3D reconstruction * Digitization requirements, metadata, image and 3D fidelity, time and resource constraints, speed * Workflows for high-throughput digitization of natural history collections * Data management for large and perhaps distributed digital collections of such data * Interface requirements, issues, and solutions both for scientific research and for public outreach to extremely large virtual collections * Applications of the resulting data resource to potentially new science and approaches as evidenced by theoretical models, case studies, parallels with existing similar data resources Thank you for your part in extending the reach of the organizing committee with this call for papers. Deadline: June 30th, 2017. With gratitude and in anticipation, Debbie Paul, et al on the Program Committee PS: Since TDWG-SPNHC 2018 is in NZ, this is an opportunity to cross-advertise both events?

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DwC Hour #4: Evolution of DwC Terms and Extensions - Tuesday 2 May 2017 5 PM CEST, 11 AM EDT, 10 AM CDT, 3 PM UTC
by Deborah Paul 28 Apr '17

28 Apr '17

Hi TDWG'ers, Darwin Core (DwC) Hour #4 is almost here: Evolution of DwC Terms and Extensions - two extant examples for community input. Go Here for Webinar Details and Meeting Link: https://www.idigbio.org/content/darwin-core-hour-evolution-darwin-core-term… ABSTRACT. Darwin Core Hour #4 shifts focus to understanding how the DwC standard terms and extensions evolve. Community input and implementation drive development of DwC. For this webinar, we selected dwc:preparations, dwc:occurrenceStatus, and dwc:establishmentMeans to show the broader community how the process works. In this way, we highlight the need for outside input - from those using TDWG standards to share biodiversity data. Two presenters, Andrew Bentley and Quentin Groom, invite you to join them and bring your TDWG expertise and insights to current issues surrounding these terms. Introduction by John Wieczorek. Please bring or submit questions for open discussions in each webinar: https://tinyurl.com/zja2muz When: Tuesday 2 May 2017 5 PM CEST, 11 AM EDT, 10 AM CDT, 3 PM UTC Where: https://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/room Please expect this DwC Hour to be 1.5 hours. EXTRAs. 1. Explore the Darwin Core Questions & Answers wiki! https://github.com/tdwg/dwc-qa/wiki - where all Darwin Core Hour (DwC) materials can be found. 2. See which of your questions have been asked and answered so far https://github.com/tdwg/dwc-qa/issues 3. Submit your question / volunteer (yourself or someone) to do a webinar on your darwin core topic: https://tinyurl.com/zja2muz 4. Here's a list of terms for which DwC recommends use of a controlled vocabulary - note many are in the Location class. https://github.com/tdwg/dwc-qa/wiki/Controlled-Vocabularies 5. See what's inside some of the DwC fields that suggest using a controlled vocabulary (data from GBIF, iDigBio, VertNet, and soon ALA): https://github.com/tdwg/dwc-qa/tree/master/data 6. Future DwC Hour webinars coming up feature discussions about the GBIF Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) and Darwin Core, and the locality terms and sharing georeferenced locality data. See you soon! Happy Darwin Core and Data Quality, :-) Deb, et al from the iDigBio Data Mgmt Interest Group and the Darwin Core Hour Team (please kindly excuse cross-postings!) Webinar series brought to you by the iDigBio Data Management Interest Group (DMI). We welcome input for this series from everyone worldwide. We plan to make this happen 1x month. We use Adobe Connect for our webinars. See https://www.idigbio.org/wiki/index.php/Web_Conferencing for hints on best experience (hint: use headsets!) -- -- Upcoming iDigBio Events https://www.idigbio.org/calendar -- Deborah Paul, iDigBio Digitization and Workforce Training iDigBio -- Steering Committee Member, SPNHC Liaison, SYNTHESYS3 Representative Institute for Digital Information, 234 LSB Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306 850-644-6366

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3rd Darwin Core Hour: Thousands of Shades for Controlled Vocabularies - Tuesday 4th April, 11AM EDT, 12 noon ART, 3PM UTC
by Deborah Paul 01 Apr '17

01 Apr '17

Hello TDWG'ers, Please join us for the next installment of Darwin Core Hour: Thousands of Shades for “Controlled” Vocabularies, with presenter, Paula Zermoglio. DETAILS for webinar. https://www.idigbio.org/content/darwin-core-hour-thousands-shades-%E2%80%9C… That's this Tuesday 4th April, 11AM EDT, 12 noon ART, 3PM UTC ABSTRACT. In this third chapter in the Darwin Core Hour series we will visit some of the most colorful Darwin Core terms for which the use of *controlled vocabularies* is recommended. First, as a follow up to Chapter 2, we will expose the current content of particular terms as they are published right now via different aggregators. Second, we will try to disentangle the reasons, purposes and chances that lead us to observe this diversity of values in such fields. Then, we will explore the current availability of controlled vocabularies in different disciplines within our community and the initiatives that are addressing the problem from different perspectives. Finally, we will try to understand if there is actually a pot at the end of the rainbow: can we come up with solid, community-built controlled vocabularies? EXTRAs. 1. Explore the Darwin Core Questions & Answers wiki! https://github.com/tdwg/dwc-qa/wiki - where all Darwin Core Hour materials can be found. 2. See which of your questions have been asked and answered so far https://github.com/tdwg/dwc-qa/issues 3. Submit your question / volunteer (yourself or someone) to do a webinar on your darwin core topic: https://tinyurl.com/zja2muz 4. Here's a list of terms for which DwC recommends use of a controlled vocabulary - note many are in the Location class. https://github.com/tdwg/dwc-qa/wiki/Controlled-Vocabularies 5. See what's inside some of the dwc fields that suggest using a controlled vocabulary (data from GBIF, iDigBio, VertNet, and soon ALA): https://github.com/tdwg/dwc-qa/tree/master/data 6. Future DwC Hour webinars coming up in May and June feature discussions about how new dwc:terms and dwc:extensions come into being and another dwc hour on the GBIF Intergrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) and Darwin Core. Happy Darwin Core and Data Quality, :-) Deb, et al from the iDigBio Data Mgmt Interest Group and the Darwin Core Hour Team (please kindly excuse cross-postings!) Webinar series brought to you by the iDigBio Data Management Interest Group (DMI). We welcome input for this series from everyone worldwide. We plan to make this happen 1x month. We use Adobe Connect for our webinars. See https://www.idigbio.org/wiki/index.php/Web_Conferencing for hints on best experience (hint: use headsets!) -- -- Upcoming iDigBio Events https://www.idigbio.org/calendar -- Deborah Paul, iDigBio Digitization and Workforce Training Specialist iDigBio -- Steering Committee Member, SPNHC Liaison, SYNTHESYS3 Representative Institute for Digital Information, 234 LSB Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306 850-644-6366

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Re: [tdwg-content] tdwg-content Digest, Vol 89, Issue 6
by Deborah Paul 14 Mar '17

14 Mar '17

Hi Steve, Matt, et al On 2017-03-14 7:00 AM, tdwg-content-request(a)lists.tdwg.org wrote: > We are now midway through the 30 day public comment period on the SDS and so > far, that issue has not come up. I was recently listening to the recording > of John Wieczorek's nice Darwin Core Hour presentation on controlled > vocabularies and it was apparent to me that the creation of controlled > vocabularies is an issue of interest to many in the community. So I've > written a blog post > (http://baskauf.blogspot.com/2017/03/controlled-values-again.html) that > attempts to explain in non-technical terms how the SDS specifies that > controlled vocabularies should be expressed in machine-readable form. For > those who are interested in the gory details, I've also included at the end > a more detailed explanation of the rationale for specifying that controlled > vocabularies should, in most cases, be described as SKOS concept schemes > rather than ontologies. For those of you interested in the on-going controlled vocabularies discussion, please do come to the next iDigBio Darwin Core Hour, brought to you by the iDigBio Data Mgmt Interest Group. You'll discover a bit more about what's found in some of these 23 fields where dwc suggests use of a cv. Paula Zermoglio presents: Darwin Core Hour: Thousands of shades for “Controlled” Vocabularies <https://www.idigbio.org/content/darwin-core-hour-thousands-shades-%E2%80%9C…>. Having TDWG members present at dwc hours is invaluable - as the broader community in the webinar strives to understand what the related data quality issues are, and what they can do about them at from their vantage point. > If you care about the creation of controlled vocabularies, you should take a > look at this post and create an official comment if there are things you > don't like about the approach taken in the proposed specification. Our > review manager, Dag Endresen, has requested that issues be raised on the > issue tracker athttps://github.com/tdwg/vocab/issues . However, > historically back-and-forth discussion about proposed standards has also > taken place on this list, so I think that responding here for clarification > and discussion would be appropriate prior to submitting an official comment. I'd also like to suggest if you think of a topic for another dwc hour / and you've someone in mind to present (yourself maybe?), please send us your ideas - using the Darwin Core Hour Input Form: https://tinyurl.com/zja2muz Best, Deb, et al in the iDigBio Data Mgmt Interest Group -- -- Upcoming iDigBio Events https://www.idigbio.org/calendar -- Deborah Paul, iDigBio Digitization and Workforce Training Specialist iDigBio -- Steering Committee Member, SPNHC Liaison, SYNTHESYS3 Representative Institute for Digital Information, 234 LSB Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306 850-644-6366

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