TDWG/GBIF Call for Participation: Life Sciences Identifiers (LSID) Working Groups ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Background ----------

The First Workshop on Globally Unique Identifiers for Biodiversity Informatics (GUID-1) was held last month at NESCent (www.nescent.org) in Durham, North Carolina, USA. The workshop was organized by the Taxonomic Databases Working Group (http://www.tdwg.org/) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (http://www.gbif.org/).

GUID-1 recommended the use of Life Sciences Identifiers (LSID) in biodiversity informatics and established two Working Groups to address outstanding questions (see http://wiki.gbif.org/guidwiki/). Answers to those questions will be reported to a second GUID meeting (GUID-2) to be hosted by e-Science Institute (eSI) in Edinburgh scheduled for June 10-12 2006.

Participation -------------

We have reached a significant point by establishing the infrastructure to support widespread use of LSIDs in biodiversity informatics. We are seeking anyone who is interested in participating in the two Working Groups. Please send an expression of interest in leading or contributing to any of the proposed tasks on the GUID wiki to guids@gbif.org. The tasks are listed on the following web pages:

http://wiki.gbif.org/guidwiki/wikka.php?wakka=InfrastructureWorkingGroup

and

http://wiki.gbif.org/guidwiki/wikka.php?wakka=PrototypingWorkingGroup

If you can lead a task team, please edit the respective wiki page, adding your name as task coordinator and start to outline the task. If you want to be involved but not lead a task, contact the task leader if there is one, or edit the respective wiki page by adding your name to the task team and adding your contribution in the appropriate space.

GUID-2 ------

The second GUID meeting will be supported by the TDWG Infrastructure Project funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Attendance at GUID-2 will be by invitation, based on contributions against the tasks.

GUID-2 will focus on working sessions and attendance will be limited. Priority for support will be given to workgroup task leaders and others actively participating on task developments.

Timeline --------

17/Mar/2006: Definition of task leaders. Tasks not claimed will be pruned, reassigned or set aside for later consideration.

24/Mar/2006: Definition of task teams, task outlines, and work plan.

31/Mar/2006: Definition of GUID-2 participants based on task assignments. GBIF/TDWG will send formal invitations to participants.

Mar/Apr/May/2006: Task development and discussion of outstanding issues, following work plan.

May/2006: Finalization of prototypes, summary of discussions, draft of recommendations for each task. Preparation to present summary at GUID-2 Workshop.

June/2006 - GUID-2 Workshop.

Contacts --------

For further information, please send messages to guids@gbif.org, or contact any of the following-

* Lee Belbin, Australia - Project Manager (lee@tdwg.org) * Donald Hobern, Denmark - Programmer Officer for Data Access and Database Interoperability (dhobern@gbif.org) * Ricardo Pereira, Brazil - Software Engineer (ricardo@tdwg.org) * Roger Hyam, United Kingdom - Technical Architect (roger@tdwg.org)