A new paper about the Darwin Core Standard has been published at PLoS ONE; Darwin Core: An Evolving Community-Developed Biodiversity Data Standard.

The paper at PLoS ONE: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0029715

Abstract:

Biodiversity data derive from myriad sources stored in various formats on many distinct hardware and software platforms. An essential step towards understanding global patterns of biodiversity is to provide a standardized view of these heterogeneous data sources to improve interoperability. Fundamental to this advance are definitions of common terms. This paper describes the evolution and development of Darwin Core, a data standard for publishing and integrating biodiversity information. We focus on the categories of terms that define the standard, differences between simple and relational Darwin Core, how the standard has been implemented, and the community processes that are essential for maintenance and growth of the standard. We present case-study extensions of the Darwin Core into new research communities, including metagenomics and genetic resources. We close by showing how Darwin Core records are integrated to create new knowledge products documenting species distributions and changes due to environmental perturbations.

David Bloom VertNet Coordinator Museum of Vertebrate Zoology University of California, Berkeley 3101 Valley Life Sciences Building Berkeley, CA 94720-3160

Phone: 510.643.1620 Fax: 510.643.8238

Email: dbloom@vertnet.org Email: dbloom@berkeley.edu

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