October 2012 - tdwg - lists.tdwg.org

Phylo-hackathon, Tucson, AZ, January 2013
by Karen Cranston 30 Oct '12

30 Oct '12

Phylogenies! Hacking! Tucson in January! Apply at http://tinyurl.com/PhyloTastic2 An implicit promise of the Tree of Life project is that, ultimately, expert knowledge of species phylogeny will be accessible and usable by everybody. In other words, we will all be able to get the species trees we need, in a useable form, when we need them. The Phylotastic project aims to make that vision a reality, by developing a loosely coupled system of components that, in response to a user’s query (a list of taxa plus conditions), will rectify names, find suitable source trees, prune and graft to get the right species, estimate branch lengths, and return the results with metadata on sources and methods. In June 2012, the HIP (Hackathons, Interoperability, Phylogenies) working group of NESCent staged a hackathon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackathon) to prototype components of a Phylotastic system, and implement demos to show their potential. Thanks to 25 participants who responded to an open call (just like this one), that hackathon was an extraordinary success (see http://phylotastic.org/). Now we are gearing up for a second hackathon, to take another step toward providing computable, convenient, credible access to the Tree of Life. We aim to recruit a diverse group of participants, including students, faculty, postdocs, and staff of both genders and from different backgrounds. Only some of the seats at the hackathon will be filled by expert hackers who spend their time coding. We also need folks who can: * Provide knowledge of workflows and downstream uses of trees * Design user interfaces * Test software * Make screencasts, develop tutorials, and document user experiences Applications are now being accepted to Phylotastic 2, which will take place January 28th, 2013 to February 1st, 2013 at the BIO5 facility in warm and sunny Tucson, AZ (http://bio5.arizona.edu/about-bio5). Information on how to apply is provided below. Partial support (and, if funds allow, full support) for travel, food and lodging will be available to each successful applicant who indicates need. We particularly welcome applications from women and members of underrepresented groups. To understand how you might be able to contribute, review the slideshow (ppt format, http://bit.ly/RWRgIc, or PDF format, http://bit.ly/POaoci), consult the web site (phylotastic.org) or contact a member of the HIP leadership team (listed below). Sincerely, Karen Cranston - on behalf of the HIP (Hackathons, Interoperability and Phylogenies) Leadership Team* HOW TO APPLY Before 16 November, 2012 at midnight, EST, fill out the online form: http://tinyurl.com/PhyloTastic2 * The application form asks you to describe how you can contribute to Phylotastic. Remember that we are not just looking for expert coders. There are many other ways to contribute. * Support for travel, housing and meals will be available to each successful applicant who indicates need. * Please understand that your application is not a guarantee of participation in the event. Funds and space are limited: we may not be able to sponsor every individual who is qualified to participate. * LEADERSHIP TEAM Karen Cranston, karen.cranston(a)nescent.org Brian Sidlauskas, brian.sidlauskas(a)oregonstate.edu Arlin Stoltzfus, arlin(a)umd.edu Mike Rosenberg mrosenb(a)asu.edu Brian O’Meara, bomeara(a)utk.edu Mark Westneat mwestneat(a)fieldmuseum.org Enrico Pontelli epontell(a)cs.nmsu.edu Rutger Vos rutgeraldo(a)gmail.com Naim Matasci nmatasci(a)iplantcollaborative.org

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Nomination of TDWG Executive Committee
by Mergen Patricia 21 Oct '12

21 Oct '12

Dear colleagues and friends of TDWG We will proceed to the elections for the 2013 Executive Committee member during the conference. As a first step, we would like to ask you to sent us Nominations for the different positions. The person you nominate has to have agreed to take on the position, should he or she be elected. Nomination can be for third parties and self-nominations are also accepted. Nominations for people that are not currently member of TDWG are allowed, but would need to become member of TDWG would they be elected. Please sent you nomination to secretary(a)tdwg.org by Monday 22nd of October midnight (Beijing time). Nominations should include - for which position in the executive - Full name - contact details (e-mail of the person) - affiliation (which institution they belong to) - clarification that they are willing to take on the position - a short Biography of the person and why she/he would qualify for the position We expect nomination for following positions - Chair - Treasurer - General Secretary - Regional Secretaries for ° Africa ° Asia ° Europe ° Latin America ° North America ° Oceania On Tuesday 23rd in the morning you will receive another mail with the list of nominations for each position and procedures for voting. Voting will be open until Wednesday 24th of October midnight (Beijing time) Results will be announced Thursday 25th of October early afternoon during the TDWG business teeming. With my best wishes and thanks in advance for your contribution. Patricia Mergen, TDWG General Secretary on behalf of the Executive Committee. Head of the Biodiversity Information and Cybertaxonomy Royal Museum for Central Africa Leuvensesteenweg 13 B-3080 Tervuren Phone:+ 32 2 769 56 26 Fax: + 32 2 769 56 42 E-mail: patricia.mergen(a)africamuseum.be http://www.africamuseum.be/

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NISO/DCMI Webinar: Embedding Linked Data invisibly into Web pages - Strategies and workflows for publishing with RDFa
by DCMI Announce 06 Oct '12

06 Oct '12

-------------------- Webinar: Embedding Linked Data Invisibly into Web Pages: Strategies and Workflows for Publishing with RDFa Date: October 24, 2012 Time: 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. (Eastern time) Event webpage: http://www.niso.org/news/events/2012/dcmi/publishing_with_RDFa/ ------------------- ABOUT THE WEBINAR As described in the April NISO/DCMI webinar by Dan Brickley, schema.org is a search-engine initiative aimed at helping webmasters use structured data markup to improve the discovery and display of search results. Drupal 7 makes it easy to markup HTML pages with schema.org terms, allowing users to quickly build websites with structured data that can be understood by Google and displayed as Rich Snippets. Improved search results are only part of the story, however. Data-bearing documents become machine-processable once you find them. The subject matter, important facts, calendar events, authorship, licensing, and whatever else you might like to share become there for the taking. Sales reports, RSS feeds, industry analysis, maps, diagrams and process artifacts can now connect back to other data sets to provide linkage to context and related content. The key to this is the adoption standards for both the data model (RDF) and the means of weaving it into documents (RDFa). Drupal 7 has become the leading content platform to adopt these standards. This webinar will describe how RDFa and Drupal 7 can improve how organizations publish information and data on the Web for both internal and external consumption. It will discuss what is required to use these features and how they impact publication workflow. The talk will focus on high-level and accessible demonstrations of what is possible. Technical people should learn how to proceed while non-technical people will learn what is possible. Speakers Brian Sletten (Bosatsu Consulting) is a liberal arts-educated software engineer with a focus on using and evangelizing forward-leaning technologies. He has a background as a system architect, a developer, a security consultant, a mentor, a team lead, an author and a trainer and operates in all of those roles as needed. His experience has spanned the online game, defense, finance, academic, hospitality, retail and commercial domains. He has worked with a wide variety of technologies such as network matrix switch controls, 3D simulation/visualization, Grid Computing, P2P and Semantic Web-based systems. He has a B.S. in Computer Science from the College of William and Mary. He is President of Bosatsu Consulting, Inc. and lives in Los Angeles, CA. Stéphane Corlosquet (Software Engineer and Drupal Developer at MIND Informatics) has been a driving force in incorporating Semantic Web capabilities into the core of the Drupal Content Management System. He holds a master's degree specializing in Semantic Web from the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI), Ireland, and has published widely read papers and technical publications, including two chapters in the book, Definitive Guide to Drupal 7. Stéphane has worked as the head of IT and Web development for Ici Formation and Eco Innovation and currently works at MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease (MIND), MGH, as a Software Engineer developing the Science Collaboration Framework, a Drupal-based distribution for building online communities of researchers in biomedecine. Thomas Baker, Chief Information Officer of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, has recently co-chaired the W3C Semantic Web Deployment Working Group and the W3C Incubator Group on Library Linked Data.

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