Dear Colleagues,

I apologize this very late information, but it seems as if my participation in this TDWG group is so new that I didn't see the obvious!

The obvious is that I am co convener of a geoinformatics session at the EGU 2006 one of the most important geoscience conferences. The session is dedicated to database and information management topics in sedimentology , stratigraphy and paleontology. And of course, taxonomy and the management of taxonomic knowledge is of special importance here. So my question is: is anybody interested to introduce the GUID thing there? Any other contribution is of course also welcome!

The deadline for abstract submission to this year's European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly is approaching fast!

Deadline for receipt of abstracts : 20 January 2006 . The official deadline was already last friday, but additional contributions can be sent to me : rhuber@wdc.mare.org.

Here is the info on the session:

SSP21 "Geoinformatics and Information Management in Stratigraphy, Sedimentology & Paleontology".

Conveners: Jens Klump (GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam), Kerstin Lehnert (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University) Robert Huber (MARUM, University of Bremen).

This session continues the discussion process initiated at the EGU General Assembly 2005 and at the AGU Fall Meeting 2005. At both meetings iGeoInfo (http://www.igeoinfo.org) had organised sessions dedicated to networking scientists working in informatics and information management in the geological sciences. Both the oral sessions and the poster sessions were very well attended.

Data on stratigraphy, sedimentology and paleontology are heterogeneous and diverse. In many countries around the globe, an increasing number of Geoscience projects are developing and maintaining digital data and information systems together with tools for data analysis and visualization. Coordination and collaboration among these projects, and their integration are essential in order to maximize the impact of these globally distributed Geoinformatics resources.

This session emphasizes the importance of international collaboration in the development of a Geoscience cyberinfrastructure that will successfully promote advances in Geoscience research and enable new approaches to addressing scientific problems that lead to new discoveries and an improved understanding of the Earth. We have defined two objectives for this session:

(1) to draw attention to and discuss the many political, cultural, organizational, and technical challenges that need to be addressed and overcome in order to achieve a truly global cyberinfrastructure for the Geosciences. (2) to highlight examples of international collaborations that successfully coordinate and integrate their efforts.

Important Dates: (Abstract Deadline 13 January 2006)

EGU General Assembly Vienna, Austria, 2-7 April 2006 http://meetings.copernicus.org/egu2006/

Deadline for support applications : 9 December 2005 (passed) Deadline for receipt of abstracts : 13 January 2006 Deadline for pre-registration : 10 March 2006

Please, forward this message also to your colleagues.

We are looking forward to seeing you at this meeting.

Regards,

Jens Klump, Kerstin Lehnert and Robert Huber

Dr. Robert Huber WDC-MARE / PANGAEA - www.pangaea.de, www.wdc-mare.org Stratigraphy.net - www.stratigraphy.net _____________________________________________ MARUM - Institute for Marine Environmental Sciences (location) University Bremen Leobener Strasse POP 330 440 28359 Bremen Phone ++49 421 218-65593, Fax ++49 421 218-65505 e-mail rhuber@@wdc-mare.org, robert.huber@stratigraphy.net