November 2015 - 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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Workshop: Promoting Synergy in the Innovative Use of Environmental Data
by Simpson, Annie 18 Nov '15

18 Nov '15

Colleagues: NatureServe and USGS are co-organizing an NSF-funded workshop that is convening a broad cross section of fields – federal natural resource management and conservation agencies, academics, NGOs, private sector, citizen science leaders – to engage in a needs assessment for generating national biogeospatial data layers. This workshop, which has the lengthy title of "Promoting synergy in the innovative use of environmental data across academia, non-profits, local and state governments, industry and the Federal government," is intended to provide a big step forward in identifying regional, national, and continental scale spatial datasets on biodiversity, vegetation, climate, and environment to support cross jurisdictional decision making. It is being held in Washington, DC, this December 2-4, just 2 weeks from now. We have commitments already from a broad and diverse set of leaders among the major federal agencies, so it will be a great relationship building opportunity as well. There are only a few spaces left, but if you would be available to come to DC to engage in these national scale data issues, we would be pleased to have your participation. More info and the registration button can be found here: http://www.natureserve.org/news-events/events/promoting-synergy-innovative-… Very limited travel funding is still available for non-federal participants. Please email healy_hamilton(a)natureserve.org for details. Interested federal employees should contact Annie_Simpson(a)usgs.gov. Best regards, Healy Hamilton, NatureServe <http://www.natureserve.org/> Chief Scientist Gerald (Stinger) Guala, Director of BISON <http://bison.usgs.ornl.gov/> and ITIS <http://www.itis.gov/>, U.S. Geological Survey

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iDigBio Webinar: DAMmed if you Do or Don’t - Tuesday 17 November 4 PM EST
by Deborah Paul 16 Nov '15

16 Nov '15

Hi Everyone! At the recent iDigBio Summit, the topic of storing media and other data (aka "Archiving") was prominent. Storing "archival" copies of images and other digital assets can be a challenge. Ever heard of a DAM? That's a Digital Asset Management system. Come find out more about these issues - bring your questions, comments, concerns, solutions, and ideas to: iDIgBio Webinar: DAMmed if you Do or Don’t https://www.idigbio.org/content/webinar-dammed-if-you-do-or-don%E2%80%99t Day and Date: Tuesday, 17 November 2015 Time: 4 PM EST, that's 21:00 UTC Where: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/datamgmt Brought to you by: The iDigBio Data Management Interest Group (DMIG) DETAILS *Abstract:* How to safeguard and preserve digital assets is increasingly critical to collections digitization programs, particularly given the explosion in specimen imaging and related efforts. This webinar will look at various procedures for digital preservation and review what a digital asset management system (DAM) is and can offer. There will be a live demo of an institution-wide DAM at Yale University that serves the Peabody Museum and other campus units, with discussion of costs, timelines, features, technical needs, and how several collections management systems successfully integrated with the DAM. *Presenter*: Larry Gall, Head of Computer Systems and Entomology Collections Manager, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University. I’m not technically a PI/coPI on a TCN, but am closely affiliated with all of the Yale ones given that I support the systems/workflow that support our content for the work. Those include Fossil Insect Collaborative (FIC), MacroAlgal Herbarium Consortium (MHC), New England Vascular Plants (NEVP), North American Lichens and Bryophytes (LBCC); and also Paleoniches as a PEN. See you there! Best, Deb, et al and yes, it's being recorded if you can't make it. -- -- Upcoming iDigBio Events https://www.idigbio.org/calendar -- Deborah Paul, iDigBio Technology Specialist Institute for Digital Information, 234 LSB Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306 850-644-6366

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iDigBio Webinar: Shaping the semantic layer by mining digitised data: iDigBio's plant records and the Environment Ontology (ENVO)
by Deborah Paul 09 Nov '15

09 Nov '15

Hi Everyone, Quick reminder about a webinar tomorrow at iDigBio. Shaping the semantic layer by mining digitised data: iDigBio's plant records and the Environment Ontology (ENVO) https://www.idigbio.org/content/webinar-shaping-semantic-layer-mining-digit… From Presenter Dr. Pier Luigi Buttigieg... *Abstract*: Domain ontologies seek to represent the entities in an area of investigation alongside their interrelations in a logically coherent manner. Domain knowledge is the lifeblood of these ontologies and initiatives such as iDigBio offer valuable repositories which contain both legacy and contemporary knowledge and are ripe for mining. The Environment Ontology (ENVO) <http://bioportal.bioontology.org/ontologies/ENVO> is a domain ontology that is concerned with environments, ecosystems, habitats, and related entities. We performed a cursory text-mining exercise focusing on iDigBio's plant habitat descriptions to learn what terms and phrases the botany community - past and present - have used to describe the environments they sample. The results are being used to guide the creation of new classes and relations in ENVO, ensuring the ontology is fit to represent the environmental aspects of these early waves of digitised plant data. In this webinar, I will describe our approach, some of its early results, and the main challenges we face going forward. Find out more about the ENVO ontology tomorrow 10 November 2015. When: Tue 9 am - 10 am EST (Tallahassee, Florida), that's Tue 3:00 PM CET (Berlin, Germany) Were: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/datamgmt Who: Dr. Pier Luigi Buttigieg, HGF-MPG Group for Deep Sea Ecology and Technology Alfred-Wegener-Institut, email: pbuttigi(a)mpi-bremen.de and Grant Godden, Research Associate, Mint Genome Project, Buell Lab, Michigan State University, email: goddengr(a)msu.edu Best, Deb, et al -- -- Upcoming iDigBio Events https://www.idigbio.org/calendar -- Deborah Paul, iDigBio Technology Specialist Institute for Digital Information, 234 LSB Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306 850-644-6366

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