TDWG is pleased to announce the commencement of the Public Review of the Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) and Life Sciences Identifier (LSID) Applicability Statements. Applicability Statements provide guidance for use of external standards within the TDWG domain. The GUID statement provides general recommendations and the LSID one covers the specific GUID currently recommended by TDWG. Since being officially submitted, the Applicability Statements have undergone a peer review, a review by the TDWG Executive and multiple revisions. Open Invitation: We invite all who may contribute and/or consume biodiversity information to examine this proposed applicability statement during the Public Review period from 23rd October till at least 23rd November 2009. How to Participate: You can participate in the review of the GUID-LSID AS in two ways; either through lodging a comment through TDWG’s Open Journal System, or you can take the Microsoft Word document and edit it with track changes and resubmit it to the GUID-LSID AS Wiki space. You can post comments to the Open Journal System (which may be anonymous) at http://www.tdwg.org/stdtrack/article/view/150. The abstract is displayed and on the right hand side of the page is a link to add a comment. Please note: you must be registered and logged in to the TDWG web site to post a comment, however registration is free. Down the bottom of the page, there is a link to download the complete applicability statement. You can also comment direct in a copy of the document as follows:

· At the previous URL, download a copy of the Microsoft Word format document.

· Once you have downloaded it, turn on track changes and make your notes and comments.

· Submit that file at http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/GUID/GUIDAndLSIDASReview. Please DO NOT add any comments to the Wiki page, comment only through the two methods outlined above. Questions about the process should be directed to me at ben(dot)richardson(at)dec.wa.gov.au. Please share this opportunity for public comment and review with others you think may be interested. Acknowledgements: I’d like to thank the authors, the anonymous reviewers and the members of the Executive Committee for their contribution to the document. In addition, the guidance of Lee Belbin through the review process has been invaluable and greatly appreciated. Links:

· GUID and LSID AS comment area in OJS http://www.tdwg.org/stdtrack/article/view/150.

· LSID Wiki space: http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/GUID/GUIDAndLSIDASReview

· LSID Resolution Project home page: http://lsids.sourceforge.net/

· LSID Specification: http://lsids.sourceforge.net/quick-links/lsid-spec/ Please accept my apology if you’ve received this multiple times from various mailing lists. Regards, Ben Richardson

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