Hello folks,

We want to bring to your attention a recently approved TDWG proposal for a set of 3 symposia on the "Semantics for Biodiversity", planned for the upcoming TDWG meeting in Florence, Oct. 28-Nov. 1. Due to the short time frame involved, we want to bring to your immediate attention these special aspects:

*Details and instructions about symposia: http://semantics4biodiversity.nceas.ucsb.edu (linked from the TDWG site under the symposium announcement)

*Submission site: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=s4bdtdwg2013 (i.e., not the TDWG site)

*Accelerated submission deadline" of SEP 4 *Accelerated review process, with acceptance notifications: SEP 11 (as courtesy to those needing approved submissions to attend)

We are hoping this "mega-symposium" will bring together at TDWG 2013 many of the exciting and important efforts currently underway in advancing biodiversity semantics.

There is also an upcoming opportunity worth noting, viz. a planned special issue of the /Semantic Web Journal/ on "Semantics for Biodiversity":

*http://www.semantic-web-journal.net/blog/call-papers-special-issue-semantics...

We anticipate that many of the TDWG contributions could be suitable for elaborating into a full paper submission for this special issue, on which several of the co-organizers of this TDWG effort are also involved as guest editors. These papers are, thankfully, not due until January 31, 2014.

Please spread the word! Many thanks for your submissions, and hoping to see you at TDWG 2013! (Sorry for the cross-posting, but we wanted to get the word out broadly...)

Sincerely, Mark Schildhauer, John Deck, Ben Adams, Nico Franz, Rob Guralnick, Ramona Walls

(on behalf of additional co-organizers: Stan Blum, Steve Baskauf, Bob Morris, Norman Morrison, Evangelos Pafilis, Joel Sachs, Pelin Yilmaz)

==================================== *Semantics for Biodiversity Symposium -- Call for Abstracts *http://semantics4biodiversity.nceas.ucsb.edu http://semantics4biodiversity.nceas.ucsb.edu/

at TDWG Conference 2013 October 28 - November 1, 2013 - Florence, Italy.

*Symposium Description and Scope * This Symposium includes a series of three, 90 minute sessions at TDWG that together constitute a "Semantics for Biodiversity" track, focused on --

Ontologies and formal models Technologies, Reasoning and Annotation methods Interoperability with genomic and ecological semantics

These sessions are not parallel tracked and they are placed on separate days to avoid saturation on the topic. Additionally, there will be an initial "primer/tutorial" session of 60 minutes, to provide basic background for TDWG participants about semantic technologies, and how these can help inform biodiversity research.

The conveners of this Symposium will be soliciting participation from diverse communities, including those from the biodiversity informatics and standards-development community per se, but also researchers interested in knowledge modeling and semantic application development in the biodiversity sciences, including relevant linkages to investigations in the ecological, genomic and phylogenetic sciences. These thematic areas recommend a stronger-than-usual outreach to the computer science community, as researchers in that community will be particularly attracted by the prospects of reporting their work in a planned (and approved) special issue of the Semantic Web Journal on "Semantics for Biodiversity". Multiple groups of informaticians and technologists are currently developing semantic technologies to enhance discovery, interpretation, and interoperability of biodiversity data, so the upcoming meeting will provide a signal opportunity to present and discuss these activities in a coordinated fashion before perhaps the most relevant community who can inform, critique, and contribute to these efforts. Further, it's anticipated that these sessions will significantly raise awareness among computer scientists and engineers relative to the informatics challenges confronting the biodiversity community, particularly among those developing generalized knowledge representation and reasoning technologies, and machine-learning approaches.

*Important Dates * Submission due: September 4, 2013 Acceptance Notification: September 11, 2013 Symposium dates: October 29 - November 1, 2013

*Symposium Format and Submissions*

We invite abstract submissions (500 words maximum) for the three sessions, which will be dedicated to short presentations on the topics described in abstracts. We anticipate presentations will be for 20 minutes, with the possibility that these times will change depending on the number of quality submissions.

Please visit http://semantics4biodiversity.nceas.ucsb.edu http://semantics4biodiversity.nceas.ucsb.edu/ for additional information on each of the sessions. Questions for the organizers can be directed to semantics4biodiversity@nceas.ucsb.edu mailto:semantics4biodiversity@nceas.ucsb.edu

Submission site: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=s4bdtdwg2013