- tdwg - lists.tdwg.org

NISO/DCMI Webinar: Metadata for Managing Scientific Research Data
by DCMI Announce 15 Aug '12

15 Aug '12

******** PLEASE EXCUSE THE CROSS-POSTING ******** WEBINAR: NISO/DCMI Webinar: Metadata for Managing Scientific Research Data DATE: August 22, 2012 TIME: 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. (Eastern Time) EVENT WEBPAGE: http://www.niso.org/news/events/2012/dcmi/scientific_data/ ABOUT THE WEBINAR The past few years have seen increased attention to national and international policies for data archiving and sharing. Chief motivators include the proliferation of digital data and a growing interest in research data and supplemental information as a part of the framework for scholarly communication. Key objectives include not only preservation of scientific research data, but making data accessible to verify research findings and support the reuse and repurposing of data. Metadata figures prominently in these undertakings, and is critical for the success of any data repositories or archiving initiative, hence increased attention to metadata for scientific data -- specifically for metadata standards development and interoperability, data curation and metadata generation processes, data identifiers, name authority control (for scientists), Linked Data, ontology and vocabulary work, and data citation standards. This NISO/DCMI webinar will provide a historical perspective and an overview of current metadata practices for managing scientific data, with examples drawn from operational repositories and community-driven data science initiatives. It will discuss challenges and potential solutions for metadata generation, identifiers, name authority control, Linked Data, and data citation. SPEAKERS Jane Greenberg, professor at the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and director of the SILS Metadata Research Center, is well known for research and writing on topics ranging from automatic metadata creation to metadata best practices, ontology research, Semantic Web, data repositories, thesauri, and scientific data curation. She has served as Principal Investigator or partner on a number of grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Health, and actively participates in organizations such as the American Library Association, American Society for Information Science and Technology, and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. Jane is the recipient of the 2012 Margaret Mann Citation from the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS). Thomas Baker, Chief Information Officer of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, has recently co-chaired the W3C Semantic Web Deployment Working Group and the W3C Incubator Group on Library Linked Data. REGISTRATION Registration is per site (access for one computer) and closes at 12:00 pm Eastern on August 22, 2012. Discounts are available for NISO and DCMI members and students. Can’t make it on the webinar date/time? Register now and gain access to the recorded archive for one year. Visit the event webpage to register and for more information: http://www.niso.org/news/events/2012/dcmi/scientific_data/

1 0

DC-2012 in Malaysia five weeks away
by DCMI Announce 26 Jul '12

26 Jul '12

DC-2012 in Kuching, Sarawak, Malasia is a little over five weeks away. Pre-conference includes two full days of tutorials on the Semantic Web starting on 3 September 2012.[1] Led by Sam Oh and Karen Coyle in day-long sessions, the two tutorials promise to take you from simple data to Linked Data. The three-day conference begins on Wednesday, 5 September and includes an exciting program of peer reviewed papers, project reports and posters.[2] DC-2012 keynote speakers Dan Brickley and Karen Coyle [3] join four other keynotes in the collocated meetings of Knowledge Technology Week 2012.[4] So, join us in beautiful Malaysia. Registration is open.[5] [1] http://dcevents.dublincore.org/index.php/IntConf/index/pages/view/tutorials… [2] http://dcevents.dublincore.org/index.php/IntConf/index/pages/view/program-2… [3] http://dcevents.dublincore.org/index.php/IntConf/index/pages/view/speakers-… [4] http://ktw.mimos.my/ktw2012/ [5] http://ktw.mimos.my/info/index.html

1 0

Public Participation in Digitization of Biodiversity Specimens Workshop
by Austin Mast 22 Jun '12

22 Jun '12

It is our pleasure to announce that iDigBio, the National Science Foundation’s National Resource for Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections (www.idigbio.org) is offering a workshop focused on engaging the public in the digitization of the US's ca. 1 billion biodiversity specimens in ways that are interesting and educational for the participants and efficient and reliable for the projects managing the digitization. The workshop is co-organized by iDigBio’s Public Participation in Digitization Working Group and iDigBio’s Education and Outreach Working Group. The target audience for the workshop includes digitization project leaders, biodiversity informatics software developers, and informal education community members. The workshop will (1) identify steps in the digitization process that could involve the public, (2) establish one or more workflows for each of those steps, keeping the motivations driving public participants and digitizing institutions in mind, (3) identify existing tools, expertise, and communities that can be engaged in the workflows and gaps where new tools, expertise, or communities are needed, and (4) start individuals or small groups on the path of making those workflows a reality. The workshop will be held at University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, September 28–29, 2012. Funding is available to support travel and per diem for five additional participants through a competitive application process. Those desiring to attend this workshop should submit their CV and a succinct paragraph (<200 words) explaining how their attendance will contribute to the successful completion of the four workshop goals given above to Cathy Bester (cbester(a)flmnh.ufl.edu) by July 16, 2012 The committee anticipates notifying applicants of decisions by July 20. Questions about the content of the workshop can be directed to Austin Mast (amast(a)bio.fsu.edu) With best regards, Austin Mast (on behalf of the iDigBio Public Participation in Digitization Working Group) and Betty Dunckel (on behalf of the iDigBio Education and Outreach Working Group) Austin Mast Associate Professor Director of the Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium Member of the Steering Committee of iDigBio, The National Resource for Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections Department of Biological Science 319 Stadium Drive Florida State University Tallahassee, FL 32306-4295 U.S.A. Office: King Life Science Building, room 4065 Lab: King Life Science Building, rooms 4068 and 4084 Herbarium: Biological Science Unit One, room 100 Voice: 1 (850) 645-1500 Fax: 1 (850) 645-8447 amast(a)bio.fsu.edu

1 0

Biodiversity Informatics White Paper: first draft
by Dave Roberts 15 Jun '12

15 Jun '12

Dear all, we have drawn together the initial ideas and contributions people have made into a first draft here: http://is.gd/WhitePaperChapters The format we've chosen to use follows the LERU report (link is on the first page of the Googledoc) which pitches a bullet point followed by a supporting paragraph. Inevitably this is too short to take much of the argument made in some contributions. I suggest that people can either tidy up their chapters and we bundle them in an annex or I'll try and edit them from notes into English and keep them as available. Note also the details of the public meeting in Brussels on 17th July. Details on the Googledoc. Please modify the document directly, but log into Google or otherwise identify yourself so that we can add you to Annex 1 (list of contributors). Cheers, Dave Roberts -- Dr D.McL. Roberts, Tel: +44 (0)20 7942 5086 Dept. Zoology, Fax: +44 (0)20 7942 5054 The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD Great Britain Email: dmr at nomencurator dot org Web page: http://scratchpads.eu http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/projects/euk-extreme/ -- "Researchers typically build databases the quickest way they know how, without necessarily considering whether they will work with other databases." Heidi Ledford, Nature 25 June 09, p1048. --

1 0

Last reminder: Deadline for iEvoBio Challenge Competitions is approaching
by Cellinese,Nico 12 Jun '12

12 Jun '12

The deadline for submissions to the yearly iEvoBio Challenge is June 25, 2012, and is rapidly approaching! This is our last reminder. This year’s theme is "Synthesizing Phylogenies," and further information on criteria for challenge entries, how to submit them, and award amount can be found at http://ievobio.org/challenge.html. Also, Biomatters Ltd is running the Geneious Challenge alongside iEvoBio’s competition. The goal of this challenge is to develop a new and exciting visualization or analysis plugin to Geneious Pro, using the public API. Seehttp://ievobio.org/geneious_challenge.html for more information. The deadline for this competition is also June 25. More details about the iEvoBio conference and program are available at http://ievobio.org<http://ievobio.org/>. You can also find continuous updates on the conference's Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/iEvoBio and Google+ page, or subscribe to the low-traffic iEvoBio announcements mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/ievobio-announce. iEvoBio 2012 is sponsored by the US National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) and by Biomatters Ltd., in partnership with the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) and the Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB). The iEvoBio 2012 Organizing Committee: Hilmar Lapp, US National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (chair) Robert Beiko, Dalhousie University Nico Cellinese, University of Florida Robert Guralnick, University of Colorado at Boulder Rebecca Kao, Denver Botanic Gardens Ellinor Michel, Natural History Museum, London Nadia Talent, Royal Ontario Museum Andrea Thomer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

1 0

TDWG Executive Committee Venue Decision
by Chuck Miller 16 May '12

16 May '12

To TDWG Members: The Executive Committee has been requested to comment regarding its decision to hold this year’s meeting in Beijing, China. Its Constitution establishes Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) as “a not-for-profit, scientific and educational association formed to establish international collaboration among the creators, managers and users of biodiversity information so as to promote the wider and more effective dissemination of information about the world's heritage of biological organisms for the benefit of the world at large.” The Executive Committee’s decision to host the 2012 meeting in China was based on several factors: 1) A desire to more evenly spread the travel hardship and costs of the meeting around the globe over time, 2) A desire to enable attendees who otherwise would not have the resources to travel internationally,, 3) The Chinese Academy of Science’s offer to host the meeting in 2012, 4) Recent advances in biodiversity informatics in China (e.g. Catalogue of Life, Encyclopedia of Life), and 5) Interest in expanding “international collaboration” and “wider and more effective dissemination of information” through direct contact with the Chinese biodiversity informatics community in their local region, as has been done in other regions of the world in the past. The Executive Committee therefore decided last year to welcome the offer from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which now expects at least 50 local attendees at this year’s meeting, the largest participation of Asian scientists in the history of TDWG meetings. Objections to holding the meeting in China have cited politically based reasons: “routine governmental suppression of internet connectivity on political grounds.” TDWG is a scientific and educational association, not a political one. TDWG comprises a global membership. Locating a TDWG meeting in a particular country does not imply an endorsement of that country's policies; it is instead an expression of TDWG’s purpose to collaborate to widely disseminate information for the benefit of the world at large. Further, there is no part of TDWG’s constitution, mission or purpose that implies or endorses isolationist, discriminatory, or punitive actions of any kind against anyone, any organization or any political entity. We look forward to your support to make this another successful and informative annual meeting and the opportunity to exchange cultures in an atmosphere of mutual respect and a common desire to make the world a better place for ourselves and future generations. Best regards, Chuck Miller, on behalf of the TDWG Executive Committee Chair Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG)

1 0

Re: [tdwg] tdwg 2012 in inappropriate venue
by Annie Simpson 11 May '12

11 May '12

Dear Fellow TDWG members: Often the discussions on TDWG lists can overwhelm due to number of responses and depth of content. I am therefore astounded that there have been no replies to Bob Morris' well-thought-out and convincingly-delivered argument of 22-April (copied here below) about our 2012 meetings. I did not answer sooner under the assumption that there was discussion going on behind the scenes by the TDWG Executive. So far, crickets. I'd like to go on the record with a personal but hesitant response that does not reflect the views of my employer. I share Bob's concerns. What do the rest of you think? Annie Simpson From: Bob Morris <morris.bob(a)gmail.com> To: tdwg(a)lists.tdwg.org Date: 22/04/2012 15:22 Subject: [tdwg] tdwg 2012 in inappropriate venue Sent by: tdwg-bounces(a)lists.tdwg.org Dear fellow TDWG members, As I said publicly at TDWG 2011, I feel that it is inappropriate for an organization devoted to the open exchange of scientific data and information to hold a meeting in a country where there is routine governmental suppression of internet connectivity on political grounds. I personally would attend any scientific meeting in such a country except one by an organization like TDWG which should be taking a position about openness of access to information, and I hope others will join me in this position and publicly decline to attend TDWG 2012. Sometimes an argument is made in such cases that participation is a way to support the hosting organization, which in this case is eminent. But often just the opposite can result: the authorities will proudly say to themselves: "See, they come anyway." Bob Morris -- Robert A. Morris Emeritus Professor of Computer Science UMASS-Boston 100 Morrissey Blvd Boston, MA 02125-3390 IT Staff Filtered Push Project Harvard University Herbaria Harvard University email: morris.bob(a)gmail.com web: http://efg.cs.umb.edu/ web: http://etaxonomy.org/mw/FilteredPush http://www.cs.umb.edu/~ram === The content of this communication is made entirely on my own behalf and in no way should be deemed to express official positions of The University of Massachusetts at Boston or Harvard University. _______________________________________________ tdwg mailing list tdwg(a)lists.tdwg.org http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg

3 2

Call for Challenge entries for iEvoBio conference
by Cellinese,Nico 10 May '12

10 May '12

Many trees enter. Fresh analysis ensues. New insights emerge. As a reminder, the iEvoBio conference is again holding a Challenge competition in 2012, this time on the theme, "Synthesizing Phylogenies." Further information on the nature of challenge entries and how to submit them can be found on the iEvoBio website at http://ievobio.org/challenge.html. Submissions are due by June 25, 2012. Cash prizes will be awarded for first place (USD 1,500) and runner-up entries. The winning entries will be selected by a vote of the iEvoBio meeting participants. Also, alongside the iEvoBio Challenge, 2012 iEvoBio sponsor Biomatters Ltd is running the Geneious Challenge. The goal of this challenge is to develop a new plugin to Geneious Pro, using the public API, that enables a new and exciting visualization or analysis. The winning entry will receive a $1000 cash prize, and all entrants who submit by the deadline will receive a 12-month subscription license. The deadline for the Geneious Challenge is the same as for the iEvoBio Challenge. Seehttp://ievobio.org/geneious_challenge.html for more information. More details about the iEvoBio conference and program are available at http://ievobio.org<http://ievobio.org/>. You can also find continuous updates on the conference's Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/iEvoBio and Google+ page, or subscribe to the low-traffic iEvoBio announcements mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/ievobio-announce. iEvoBio 2012 is sponsored by the US National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) and by Biomatters Ltd., in partnership with the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) and the Systematic Biologists (SSB). The iEvoBio 2012 Organizing Committee: Hilmar Lapp, US National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (chair) Robert Beiko, Dalhousie University Nico Cellinese, University of Florida Robert Guralnick, University of Colorado at Boulder Rebecca Kao, Denver Botanic Gardens Ellinor Michel, Natural History Museum, London Nadia Talent, Royal Ontario Museum Andrea Thomer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

1 0

Job: NESCent User Interface Design and Web Application Developer
by Kristen Eisenberg 03 May '12

03 May '12

The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) seeks a creative and enthusiastic individual to design user interfaces and web applications for scientific applications. The incumbent will work as part of a small informatics team in close collaboration with domain scientists. NESCent (http://nescent.org) is an NSF-funded center dedicated to cross-disciplinary research in evolutionary science. Our informatics team works closely with visiting and resident scientists to support their custom software and database development needs. All NESCent software products are open-source, and the Center has a number of initiatives to actively promote collaborative development of community software resources (http://informatics.nescent.org) Above all, we are enthusiastic about our work, about the mission of the Center, and about the contribution of informatics to that mission. Kristen Eisenberg Billige Flüge Marketing GmbH Emanuelstr. 3, 10317 Berlin Deutschland Telefon: +49 (33) 5310967 Email: utebachmeier at gmail.com Site: http://flug.airego.de - Billige Flüge vergleichen

3 2

Call for Software Bazaar entries open for Conference on Informatics for Phylogenetics, Evolution, and Biodiversity
by Cellinese,Nico 24 Apr '12

24 Apr '12

The Call for Software Bazaar entries is now open for the 2012 conference on Informatics for Phylogenetics, Evolution, and Biodiversity (iEvoBio), at http://ievobio.org/ocs2/index.php/ievobio/2012. See below for instructions. The Software Bazaar features presenters demonstrating their software live on a laptop. At iEvoBio, this session takes the place of a poster session, and will be approximately 2.0 hours in duration. Conference attendees will be able to walk from one demonstration to the next and talk with the presenters. Please also see our FAQ (http://ievobio.org/faq.html) Entries should be software aimed at advancing research in phylogenetics, evolution, and biodiversity, and can include interactive visualizations that have been pre-computed (such as SVGs, or Google Earth-compatible KML files). Note that commercial marketing activities are not permitted - presenters wishing to promote commercial or proprietary services or products should contact the Evolution conference about exhibitor space (http://www.confersense.ca/Evolution2012) Submissions consist of a title, which will typically be the name of the software (or visualization method) being presented, the URL of a website where more information can be obtained, and the license under which the source code is available. The website must contain a link to where the source code (and possibly binaries) can be downloaded. If it is not obvious from the website, the submission must describe what the software does. Reviewers will judge whether a submission is within scope of the conference (see above), and need to be able to verify whether the open-source requirement(*) is met. Presenters are expected to bring their own laptops for presentation, and any auxiliary devices necessary (such as a mouse). Power will be available at the presentation tables (110V/60Hz, US-style plugs; international presenters need to bring a suitable adaptor). Please let the organizing committee know as much in advance as possible if you expect to have unusually high demands for wireless network bandwidth, a large display, or other hardware. Review and acceptance of Software Bazaar submissions will be on a rolling basis. The deadline for submission is the morning of the first day of the conference (July 10), but, because space for Software Bazaar presentations is finite, we cannot guarantee the availability of slots for late submissions. We cannot accept submissions until the open-source requirements are met. Software Bazaar demonstrations are only 1 of 5 kinds of contributed content that iEvoBio will feature. The other 4 are: 1) Full talks (closed), 2) Lightning talks, 3) Challenge entries, and 4) Birds-of-a-Feather gatherings. The Calls for Challenge entries (http://ievobio.org/challenge.html) and Lightning Talks (same submission URL as above) remain open, and the Birds-of-a-Feather call is forthcoming. More details about the conference and program are available at http://ievobio.org<http://ievobio.org/>. You can also find continuous updates on the conference's Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/iEvoBio and Google+ page, or subscribe to the low-traffic iEvoBio announcements mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/ievobio-announce. iEvoBio 2012 is sponsored by the US National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) and by Biomatters Ltd., in partnership with the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) and the Systematic Biologists (SSB). The iEvoBio 2012 Organizing Committee: Hilmar Lapp, US National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (chair) Robert Beiko, Dalhousie University Nico Cellinese, University of Florida and Florida Museum of Natural History Robert Guralnick, University of Colorado at Boulder Rebecca Kao, Denver Botanic Gardens Ellinor Michel, Natural History Museum, London Nadia Talent, Royal Ontario Museum Andrea Thomer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (*) iEvoBio and its sponsors are dedicated to promoting the practice and philosophy of Open Source software development (see http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php) and reuse within the research community. For this reason, software to be demonstrated to conference attendees must be licensed with a recognized Open Source License (see http://www.opensource.org/licenses/) and be available for download, including source code, by a tar/zip file accessed through ftp/http or through a widely used version control system like cvs, Subversion, git, Bazaar, or Mercurial. Authors are advised that non-compliant submissions must be revised to meet the requirement by July 8 at the latest, and in the event that presentation slots run out, precedence is established by the date they are first found in compliance, not the date of submission. _______________________________________________

1 0