I sent a version of this message to TAXACOM and EvolDir, so you may have seen it already (in which case my apologies), but I've been appointed Chair of the GBIF Science Committee and I'm canvasing views on what's next for GBIF, particularly regarding the kinds of data it collects and the kinds of science it supports (you can get an idea of the kind of science that GBIF-hosted data currently supports from this list of papers on Mendeley http://www.mendeley.com/groups/1068301/gbif-public-library/ ).

I should stress that this is simply me trying to calibrate my perception of GBIF's role with what others think. There have been formal surveys (see the papers in the journal "Biodiversity Informatics" https://journals.ku.edu/index.php/jbi/issue/view/370/showToc ), meetings, and a "vision" statement (the "Global Biodiversity Informatics Outlook, http://www.biodiversityinformatics.org/ ). But there's always the chance that these fora may miss some points of view, so I'm keen to get feedback on what sort of things GBIF could do to improve the way it can help people tackle the scientific questions they are interested in.

For example, is there some fundamental limitation that GBIF has that prevents it being useful to you? Is there some feature/data type/geographic coverage/etc. that could be addressed that would make it more useful? Is there a role that GBIF should take on that it hasn't done so? I'd welcome any comments, suggestions, views, etc. You can reply to me directly, or to this email list. I've also posted this request on my blog http://iphylo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/what-can-global-biodiversity.html, so you can comment there if you like.

Regards

Rod
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Roderic Page
Professor of Taxonomy
Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine
College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences
Graham Kerr Building
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK

Email:  r.page@bio.gla.ac.uk
Tel:  +44 141 330 4778
Fax:  +44 141 330 2792
Skype:  rdmpage
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/rdmpage
LinkedIn:  http://uk.linkedin.com/in/rdmpage
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Blog:  http://iphylo.blogspot.com
Home page:  http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/rod.html