July 2013 - tdwg-content - lists.tdwg.org

iDigBio Train-the-Trainers Georeferencing Workshop Oct 8 - 12, 2012
by Deb Paul 09 Aug '13

09 Aug '13

** Hi Everyone, The Georeferencing Working Group at iDigBio is pleased to announce our first "Train-the-Trainers" Georeferencing Workshop for Thematic Collections Networks (TCNs) and others in engaged in the digitization of biological collections in the United States. See: https://www.idigbio.org/content/idigbios-first-train-trainers-georeferencin… for details. Three slots are still available in this workshop that is designed to focus on training participants to teach others to georeference. If you are interested, please send an application describing the reason(s) for your interest in the workshop, the current and future projects that will benefit from your attendance, and any previous experience you have with georeferencing to iDigBio's Program Assistant, Cathy Bester, cbester(a)flmnh.ufl.edu What: Train-the-Trainers -- Georeferencing Workshop Where: University of Florida, Gainesville, FL Who: Interested members of current TCNs and others in the biodiversity natural history collections community. When: October 8-12, 2012 Contact: Deborah Paul dpaul(a)fsu.edu for further information. Best, Deb and the iDigBio Georeferencing Working Group Deborah Paul User Services, iDigBio Institute for Digital Information, iDigInfo Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32308 850-644-6366

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Data capture software and Darwin Core
by Justin Steventon 22 Jul '13

22 Jul '13

Hi folks, Just starting to get into Darwin Core. Thanks for any help and suggestions you can provide. I'm the builder of a data capture application (using PDAs and smart phones) called CyberTracker (http://www.cybertracker.org). We want to create a feature to export to Simple Darwin Core as XML. We have two kinds of data: timer tracks and sightings. Timer tracks are automatically snapped at regular intervals and only contain a timestamp and location. Sightings are manually captured data and vary quite a bit. For example, they could represent the weather or a direct sighting of an animal. It seems clear that a sighting maps directly to an "Event". If we have a long list of timer track points, should these show up as many "Location" records? Regards, -Justin

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Launch of LifeWatch INBO blog
by DESMET, Peter 10 Jul '13

10 Jul '13

-- Apologies for cross-posting -- Dear colleagues, We are happy to announce that we have just launched our blog athttp://lifewatch.inbo.be/blog/ We will be blogging about the ideas, challenges and technologies involved in building an open terrestrial and freshwater observatory in Flanders for the LifeWatch research infrastructure. By openly documenting what we do, we hope to turn our efforts into open and collaborative projects. You can read more athttp://lifewatch.inbo.be/blog/posts/introduction.html You can follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/LifeWatchINBO) or subscribe to the RSS feed (http://lifewatch.inbo.be/blog/feeds/rss.xml). Looking forward to collaborate, The LifeWatch INBO team: Peter Desmet Bart Aelterman Kevin Azijn * * * * * * * * * * * * * D I S C L A I M E R * * * * * * * * * * * * * Dit bericht en eventuele bijlagen geven enkel de visie van de schrijver weer en binden het INBO onder geen enkel beding, zolang dit bericht niet bevestigd is door een geldig ondertekend document. The views expressed in this message and any annex are purely those of the writer and may not be regarded as stating an official position of INBO, as long as the message is not confirmed by a duly signed document.

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A radical proposal for Darwin Core
by joel sachs 03 Jul '13

03 Jul '13

Hi Everyone, Darwin Core remains poorly documented, occasionally inconsistent, and frequently misunderstood. (Does anyone disagree with that characterization?) I believe this is one of the reasons we're seeing a proliferation of overlapping and sometimes incompatible ontologies building on Darwin Core terms. One of the suggestions that came up on the TDWG-RDF mailing list is to have a clean-up-a-thon/document-a-thon for TDWG namespaces and terms. I suggest that, until such a clean up of Darwin Core occurs, TDWG accept no additions to the Darwin Core standard. There are several examples in support of my claim that we're building on a shaky foundation - an obvious one is that, as Steve is currently pointing out, there is no consensus on what constitutes a Darwin Core occurrence. (Can anyone name an instance of the class "http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Occurrence"?) The clean-up-a-thon proposal was enthusiastically endorsed within the RDF group, but no one volunteered to organize it. I propose that we self-organize, and find a way to carve out two days at the coming meeting to hash out as much as we can, with a follow-on workshop if necessary. But first, I'd be interested to know - am I the only one who feels this way? Sincerely, Joel. p.s. I've said this before, but it bears repeating - Darwin Core is almost an excellent standard, and almost ideally suited to be the foundation for a semantic web for biodiversity informatics. I have great respect for those who were involved in its creation and continued curation - for their hard work, and clear thinking, and patience for people like me struggling to understand. But all that work, thought, and patience will be for naught, if the gyre is allowed to widen much further.

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