July 2014 - tdwg - lists.tdwg.org

In Memoriam Dr Richard Pankhurst
by Mergen Patricia 14 Dec '15

14 Dec '15

Dear Colleagues, On behalf of TDWG we are very sorry to inform you that Richard John Pankhurst passed away on Tuesday 26 March after fighting oesophageal cancer for many years. He was a very important contributer and friend of TDWG, as can be judged from his short CV from the BioCISE directory: Dr Richard Pankhurst began his career in computing in the computer section at CERN, Geneva in 1963, and moving back to Cambridge to work on Computer-Aided Design in 1966. In 1971 he moved to the Botany School, Cambridge to begin work on his PANKEY programs for identification and key construction. This was continued at the Botany department of the Natural History Museum from 1974 until 1991, where he was for many years curator of the British herbarium, and also worked on the Flora Meso-Americana. "Biological Identification", 1978, was the first textbook on computer methods in identification. A new version of this book was published by C.U.P in 1991. Also published in that year was the Flora of the Outer Hebrides. With over 50 publications of refereed papers and books in the fields of taxonomic computing he has made major contributions to these fields. Dr. Pankhurst has been very active recently in programming and managing botanical databases (Flora Europaea, BSBI database and PANDORA) and systems with images. He was appointed Principal Scientific Officer at the RGB Edinburgh in 1991. Dr. Pankhurst served on various committees of British and international organizations, among others. Botanical Society of the British Isles, Committee for Scotland and Database Committee. Botanical Society of Scotland, Council. Taxonomic Databases Working Group, convener of Descriptors Group. International Organisation for Plant Information, co-convener of Information Systems Committee, Checklist Committee. Dr. Pankhurst was the head of the Department of Taxonomic Computing at RGBE. After his official retirement, he compiled a large database of the Rose family. His work on recording the wild flowers of the Outer Hebrides took him frequently to these remote islands on behalf of the Botanical Society of the British Isles. His interest in Taraxacum (dandelions) was acknowledged when a species found only on St. Kilda was named *Taraxacum pankhurstianum*. In Richard, not only a very important scientist was lost to our community, but also a very pleasant collaborator and friend . <patricia.mergen(a)africamuseum.be> Dr. Patricia Mergen (General Secretary of TDWG, on behalf of the Executive Committee) Head of Biodiversity Information and Cybertaxonomy Royal Museum for Central Africa Leuvensesteenweg 13 B-3080 Tervuren Belgium + 32 2 769 5 *626* patricia.mergen(a)africamuseum.be

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Invitation to Open Science Codefest 2014: Last Day for Discounted Rooms and Free Registration
by Morgan Visalli 31 Jul '14

31 Jul '14

Register for Open Science Codefest and book a room at the Fess Parker Hotel in Santa Barbara, CA by August 1st for free registration and discounted room rates! ________________________________________________________ INVITATION TO OPEN SCIENCE CODEFEST 2014 WHAT: Open Science Codefest will gather researchers from ecology, biodiversity science, and other earth and environmental sciences with computer scientists, software engineers, and developers to collaborate on coding projects of mutual interest. WHEN: September 2-4, 2014 WHERE: The Fess Parker Hotel in Santa Barbara, California COST: Registration is free. Rooms are available at the Fess Parker at a discounted rate until August 1st. Register here: http://nceas.github.io/open-science-codefest/ Inspired by hack-a-thons and organized in the participant-driven, unconference style, the Open Science Codefest is for anyone with an interesting problem, solution, or idea that intersects environmental science and computer programming. This is the conference where you will actually get stuff done -- whether that's coding up a new R module, developing an ontology, working on a data repository, creating data visualizations, dreaming up an interactive eco-game, discussing an idea, or any other concrete collaborative goal that interests a group of people. Suggest a session topic or review proposed sessions in the Open Science Codefest Github project ( https://github.com/NCEAS/open-science-codefest/issues?labels=&milestone=&pa…). To suggest a session, create a "New Issue" and apply the "proposed session" label. Email the Codefest team at: codefest(a)nceas.ucsb.edu Learn more on the Codefest website: http://nceas.github.io/open-science-codefest/ Please forward this announcement and spread the word about Open Science Codefest 2014. People from a wide variety of disciplines, geographic regions, and skill levels are encouraged to attend! Follow us on Twitter #OSCodefest Sponsored by: National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), the National Science Foundation (NSF), rOpenSci, DataONE, Mozilla Science Lab

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Travel Awards for African Participation in the 2014 TDWG Conference, Jönköping, Sweden
by Mergen Patricia 25 Jul '14

25 Jul '14

Dear all On behalf of TDWG I would like to inform you about following grant opportunities for travel awards for African participants supported jointly by JRS Biodiversity and the Belgian Cooperation. more information at : http://www.tdwg.org/homepage-news-item/article/travel-awards-for-african-pa… Do not hesitate to forward to interested colleagues. Deadline to apply is September 5th 2014. With my best wishes Dr. Patricia Mergen General Secretary of TDWG. Contact : secretary(a)tdwg.org

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CitStitch Hackathon Opportunity
by Austin Mast 24 Jul '14

24 Jul '14

iDigBio (www.idigbio.org) and Zooniverse's Notes from Nature Project (www.notesfromnature.org) are pleased to announce the CitStitch Hackathon. The goal of the hackathon is to build interoperability among projects thus further enabling public participation in biocollections digitization in useful and exciting ways. There are approximately 1 billion specimens of this type in US collections alone, but it is estimated that just 10% of them are currently digitized and online. Digitization of biodiversity research collections grants researchers and the public access to vast quantities of information needed for addressing questions related to climate change, invasive species, and the extinction crisis. The magnitude of the task of bringing those collections into digital format exceeds that of any single organization and will require new, Internet-scale approaches to engage the public. This is an exciting opportunity to work on a ground-breaking citizen-science endeavor with immediate and strong impacts in the areas of biodiversity and applied conservation. The event will occur from December 3–5, 2014, at iDigBio in Gainesville, FL. There is up to $1500 for support of travel, lodging, and meals for each participant. Two or more development tracks will be identified by hackathon participants during one or more remote meetings prior to the hackathon. These tracks could involve such things as (1) innovative cross-platform ways to deploy and manage public participation projects, (2) services for data analysis and visualization to engage the public or inform project management, (3) novel ways to advertise and grow public participation projects, or (4) ingestion of crowdsourced data into biodiversity collection data management systems. The CitStitch Hackathon is being organized by Austin Mast (Florida State University) and Rob Guralnick (University of Colorado–Boulder), with input from an organizing committee additionally composed of Ben Brumfield, Libby Ellwood, Paul Flemons, Ed Gilbert, Greg Newman, and Nelson Rios. **If you wish to be considered for one of about 5–7 open invitations (of a total of about 30), please send (1) your CV/resume, (2) a short description (<250 words) of your relevant expertise (citing example products where appropriate), (3) a short description of the functionality that you'd like to develop in this domain, and (4) the days that you can attend to Austin Mast (amast(a)bio.fsu.edu) by Monday, September 1, for assured consideration. We especially encourage qualified graduate students and postdoctoral scholars to apply.** With best regards, Austin and Rob Austin Mast ____________________________________ Associate Professor · Director, Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium · Associate Editor, Systematic Biology and Systematic Botany · Treasurer, American Society of Plant Taxonomists · Executive Committee Member, iDigBio, The National Resource for Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections Department of Biological Science · 319 Stadium Drive · Florida State University · Tallahassee, FL 32306-4295 · U.S.A. Office is King Life Science Building, room 4065 · Lab is King Life Science Building, rooms 4068 and 4084 · Herbarium is Biological Science Unit One, room 100 Voice: 1 (850) 645-1500 · Fax: 1 (850) 645-8447 · amast(a)bio.fsu.edu ____________________________________

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Final Call: Tree-for-All: A hackathon to access OpenTree’s global phylogeny resources
by Julie Allen 02 Jul '14

02 Jul '14

A global “tree of life” will transform biological research in a broad range of disciplines from ecology to bioengineering. To help facilitate that transformation, the OpenTree <http://opentreeoflife.org/> project [1] now provides online access to >4000 published phylogenies, and a newly generated tree covering more than 2.5 million species. The next step is to build tools to enable the community to use these resources. To meet this aim, OpenTree <http://www.opentreeoflife.org/>, Arbor <http://www.arborworkflows.com/> [2] and NESCent’s HIP <http://www.evoio.org/wiki/HIP> working groups [3] are staging a week-long hackathon September 15 to 19 at U. Michigan, Ann Arbor. Participants in this “Tree-for-all” will work in small teams to develop tools that use OpenTree’s web services to extract, annotate, or add data in ways useful to the community. Teams also may focus on testing, expanding and documenting the web services. How could a global phylogeny be useful in your research or teaching? What other data from OpenTree would be valuable? How could OpenTree web services be integrated into familiar workflows and analysis tools? How could we add to the database of published trees, or enrich it with annotations? If you can imagine using these resources, and you have the skills to work collaboratively to turn those ideas into products (as a coder, or working side-by-side with coders), we invite you to apply for the hackathon. The full call for participation (http://bit.ly/1ioPPMc) provides instructions for how to apply, and how to share your ideas with potential teammates (strongly encouraged prior to applying). Applications are due July 8th. Travel support is provided. Women and underrepresented minorities are especially encouraged to apply. If you have questions, contact Karen Cranston (karen.cranston(a)nescent.org, @kcranstn, OpenTree), Arlin Stoltzfus (arlin(a)umd.edu, HIP), Julie Allen ( juliema(a)illinois.edu, HIP), or Luke Harmon (lukeh(a)uidaho.edu, Arbor). [1] http://www.opentreeoflife.org [2] http://www.arborworkflows.com/ [3] http://www.evoio.org/wiki/HIP (Hackathons, Interoperability, Phylogenies) -- Julie Allen Postdoctoral Researcher Illinois Natural History Survey University of Illinois www.juliamallen.com

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