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Invitation to DC-2011 pre-conference tutorials
by DCMI Announce 26 Aug '11

26 Aug '11

***Please excuse cross-posting*** ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DC-2011 Pre-conference Tutorials TUTORIAL ABSTRACTS: http://dcevents.dublincore.org/index.php/IntConf/index/pages/view/tutorials… DATE: 21 September 2011 TIME: 9:00 - 17:00 PLACE: National Library of the Netherlands, The Hague REGISTRATION: http://dcevents.dublincore.org/index.php/IntConf/index/pages/view/registrat… [Registration is available for this special day-long session only or for the full conference] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- We are writing to invite you to participate in Dublin Core tutorials planned for DC-2011 at The Hague. Registration for the pre-conference includes all four tutorials. The topics of the tutorials range from an introduction to Dublin Core through migration of an XML/HTML encoded Dublin Core metadata application to a linked data version. The following four tutorials are programmed: TUTORIAL TITLE: An Introduction to Dublin Core PRESENTER: Stephanie Taylor ABSTRACT: This tutorial will provide a basic introduction to the Dublin Core (DC) metadata set, starting with a brief overview of how and why DC began and how it has developed to the present day. Simple DC and Qualified DC will be explained, with practical examples of real-life usage to illustrate the application of DC in different working environments. The tutorial will have a 'hands on' approach, giving participants an opportunity to explore the elements through group work and to use both Simple and Qualified DC to describe objects. TUTORIAL TITLE: Even More Dublin Core PRESENTER: Emma Tonkin ABSTRACT: Dublin Core, like many things in life, is many things to many people. This tutorial starts by taking a quick tour through the conceptual landscape of the DCMI. We then move on to practical exploration, demonstrating the role of Dublin Core as a helpful Swiss Army knife in a well-stocked metadata toolbox. Using the vocabularies, schemas, concepts and processes behind Dublin Core—such as the Singapore Framework, we work through practical examples of: describing a set of resources; developing an application profile for a given purpose; building metadata records on the basis of a newly constructed application profile; and marking up web-based data with microformats. Finally, the tutorial takes a look at how Dublin Core fits in with the world of Linked Data. TUTORIAL TITLE: SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System) PRESENTER: Antoine Isaac ABSTRACT: SKOS is a data model to represent and network knowledge organization systems (thesauri, classification systems, etc) in RDF. SKOS is meant to be as easy of use as possible, fitting existing practices while keeping general enough to fit a high number of use cases and KOS configurations. In this tutorial, an introduction to the various features of SKOS will be given, illustrating how they can be used to represent existing KOS data. The tutorial will present how the vision of leveraging existing KOS on the web of data is being adopted in a number of projects, in the Cultural Heritage sector and beyond. Available tooling and methods for creating and publishing SKOS as well as porting legacy KOS data to SKOS will also be discussed. TUTORIAL TITLE: From Dublin Core to Linked Data PRESENTER: Paul Hermans ABSTRACT: In this tutorial we will learn in a concrete way how to migrate an XML/HTML encoded Dublin Core metadata application to a linked data version hereof. We cover all the needed steps to: define the identifiers (URI's) of the resources choose the right models, vocabularies generate links to different datasets convert to the needed representations (RDF/XML, turtle, HTML) and publish the data as dereferenceable linked data. We will also address also some FAQ's: reusing vocabularies or building your own, SKOS (concepts) or OWL (classes), how to model temporal constraints, how to apply closed world constraints. In closing, we give an overview of the tools and technologies which can be used. We very much hope some or all of you may be able to attend what we expect to be a very useful event. Cordially, Muriel Foulonneau, Henri Tudor Research Centre Seth van Hooland, Université Libre de Bruxelles

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Invitation to Vocabulary Management and Alignment pre-conference session (DC-2011)
by DCMI Announce 22 Aug '11

22 Aug '11

***Please excuse cross-posting*** ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DC-2011 Pre-conference Session: "Vocabulary Management and Alignment" DATE: 21 September 2011 TIME: 9:00 - 17:00 PLACE: National Library of the Netherlands, The Hague REGISTRATION: http://dcevents.dublincore.org/index.php/IntConf/index/pages/view/registrat… [Registration is available for this special day-long session only or for the full conference] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- We are writing to invite you to participate in a Dublin Core special session being planned for DC-2011 at The Hague.[1] The day-long pre-conference special session is intended as a forum for managers of structured data vocabularies as well as researches and practitioners working on metadata management and controlled vocabularies.[2] The session will be focused on the shared needs for vocabulary management infrastructure, the policy issues surrounding vocabulary management, and the possibility of mapping between vocabularies. The topics listed are only suggestions--attendees will be able to influence the direction of discussion. A poll will be circulated to registrants prior to the meeting to gather additional background information and help set the agenda. At DC-2010, Mike Bergman's keynote address strongly suggested that DCMI has a potential role in promoting co-operation among vocabulary managers and in providing best practices for vocabulary alignment and interoperability. The inevitable and useful proliferation of vocabularies emerging in the linked data space demonstrates a need for increased vocabulary reuse and tools to facilitate this reuse, as well as central reference vocabularies and tools to manage and encourage vocabulary mapping. The purpose of this day-long special session at DC-2011 is to explore the issues identified by Bergman among others and DCMI's potential role in supporting vocabulary alignment, interoperability and preservation across the metadata ecosystem. If travel is not an option for any of you, remote participation may be possible through IRC. Please note that early-bird registration ends on 5 September. We very much hope some or all of you may be able to attend what we expect to be a very useful event. Cordially, Tom Baker, DCMI, United States Corey Harper, New York University, United States Diane Hillmann, DCMI, United States Gordon Dunsire, Consultant, United Kingdom Johannes Keizer, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Italy Jon Phipps, Metadata Management Associates, United States [1] http://purl.org/dcevents/dc-2011 [2] http://dcevents.dublincore.org/index.php/IntConf/index/pages/view/specialSe…

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JOB: NESCent UI design / developer
by Karen Cranston 27 Jul '11

27 Jul '11

User Interface Design and Web Application Developer The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) seeks a creative and enthusiastic individual to design user interfaces and web applications for scientific applications that manage, analyze, visualize and share data in support of evolutionary research. The incumbent will work as part of a small informatics team in close collaboration with domain scientists. NESCent (http://nescent.org) is an NSF-funded center dedicated to cross-disciplinary research in evolutionary science. Our informatics team works closely with visiting and resident scientists to support their custom software and database development needs (http://informatics.nescent.org), and collaborates broadly with other biodiversity informatics projects. All NESCent software products are open-source, and the Center has a number of initiatives to actively promote collaborative development of community software resources. Above all, we are enthusiastic about our work, about the mission of the Center, and about the contribution of informatics to that mission. Job description: The incumbent will design and develop user interfaces and web applications for databases and other software tools for sponsored scientists and staff. The job responsibilities include all stages of the software development process, including requirements gathering, design, implementation, release packaging and documentation, as part of a small team (typically 2-3 individuals). We expect the incumbent to present their work at conferences and contribute to publications with scientific collaborators; interact regularly with visiting and resident scientists, other members of the informatics team and Center staff; and generally serve as an expert resource for Center personnel. The position provides opportunities for professional development and encourages research into new technologies. Most informatics staff work at our Durham NC offices, located adjacent to Duke University, but we support a wide range of technologies for virtual communication with off-site staff and collaborators. Salary range: $70,000 - $80,000, depending on education and experience Required Qualifications: * Demonstrated success collaborating with clients on custom software solutions * Experience with various stages of the software development cycle * Expertise in development and testing of user interface designs * Excellent communication skills, both virtual and face-to-face Preferred Qualifications: * M.S. or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Bioinformatics or related field * Demonstrated interest in science, particularly biology * Expertise in dynamic and interactive web technologies (JavaScript, CGI) * Expertise in rapid application development and respective programming technologies and languages (e.g., modern scripting languages and web-application frameworks such as Python/Django, Ruby/Ruby-on-Rails, and Perl/Catalyst). * Expertise in graphic design * Expertise in data visualization and/or scientific data integration * Expertise in software usability design and assessment * Expertise in web service (SOAP, REST, XML, JSON) and semantic web technologies * Fluency in Java programming * Prior experience in relational database programming (PostgreSQL or MySQL) * Experience with open-source, and collaborative, software development How to apply: Please send cover letter, resume and contact information for three references to Dr. Karen Cranston, Training Coordinator and Bioinformatics Project Manager (karen.cranston(a)nescent.org); Please also complete the online application at the University of North Carolina HR website: http://bit.ly/r9HQ8r. Informal inquires or requests for additional information may be directed to Dr. Cranston by email or phone (+1-919-613-2275). Closing date is August 15, 2011. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ karen.cranston(a)gmail.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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CfP: 1st International Workshop on Ontologies come of Age in the Semantic Web, OCAS2011 (collocated with ISWC2011)
by Jouni Tuominen 27 Jun '11

27 Jun '11

[This information is being posted to multiple lists - we apologise if you get it several times. Please, pass the information to whom it may benefit. Thank you for understanding and cooperation. The organisers.] CALL FOR PAPERS 1st International Workshop on Ontologies come of Age in the Semantic Web, OCAS2011 Collocated with the 10th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC2011) October 23rd or 24th, 2011 Bonn, Germany Also, OCAS Challenge: Prizes First place: US$ 2000 Second place: US$ 1000 Three third prizes of $500 each For the Challenge, specifically for the Challenge, check http://ocas.mywikipaper.org/?q=node/8 The OCAS Workshop http://ocas.mywikipaper.org The real challenge for Semantic Web technologies and ontologies lays in the adoption; although the need for this disruptive technology is clear, it has not yet been fully adopted by the mainstream. Ontologies: where, what for, how, when and why? Ontologies are being used in several applications, but is ontology engineering a mature discipline? Not only are we interested in practical realizations of the Semantic Web, but also in visions of technology that illustrate how SW technology and ontologies could change our experience of the Web. Questions addressed by OCAS2011: * How are SW technologies and ontologies being adopted by mainstream? * Experience reports of the introduction of SW technologies and ontologies in corporate and government environments * Once introduced in an environment, how do SW and ontology-based applications evolve? * Ontologies in manufacturing and production chains * Ontologies supporting CAD interoperability and feature extraction; towards smart CAD environments * How could RDF(a) and ontologies be used to represent the knowledge encoded in scientific documents and in general-interest media publications? * What ontologies do we need for representing structural elements in a document? * How can we capture the semantics of rhetorical structures in scholarly communication, and of hypotheses and scientific evidence? * What does a network of truly interconnected documents look like? How could interoperability across documents be enabled? * Are decision support systems in the biomedical domain using ontologies? How? * How are biomedical ontologies logically formalizing the rich set of lexical definitions gathered? How are these ontologies going beyond controlled vocabularies? * Practical cases of successful and unsuccessful application of ontologies and SW technologies in application domains such as: financial, biomedical, e-business, engineering, law enforcement, document management, egovernment, legislative systems. Organizing Committee Alexander García Castro is an instructor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He is currently working on the application and development of SW technologies and ontologies in translational research. He is particularly interested in Knowledge Management, Ontology engineering and Semantic Web Technologies in the biomedical domain. Alexander has been leading the development of the ORATEOntology repository, focusing on manual and automatic mapping facilities. He has also led the development of a number of Protégé plug-ins. In addition Alexander has successfully participated in a number of Semantic Web related projects, some of them have been awarded at in international contests such as the 2009 Elsevier Grand Challenge. In addition Alexander has successfully organized workshops such as ORES (at ESWC2010), SERES (at ISWC2010), SePublica (at ESWC2011) and OSEMA (at ESWC2011). Ken Baclawski is an Associate Professor of the College of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University. His primary research area is ontology based computing. This includes research in the Semantic Web, formal ontology-based methods for software engineering and software modeling, and ontology-based methods in biology and medicine. He was one of the founders of the OOR initiative. He and his students have been active developers of the OOR. Professor Baclawski holds 10 US and UK patents. He has authored articles in such journals and conferences as the US National Academy of Science, Information Systems, the International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology, the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing, and the International Semantic Web Conference. He has served on numerous peer review panels for the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Association for Computing Machinery, and has organized and served on many program committees of research conferences. He serves as a consultant to companies and government laboratories, and has edited and written several books and research monographs. John Bateman is a full Professor of Applied Linguistics in the English and Linguistics Departments of the University of Bremen, specializing in functional, computational and multimodal linguistics. His research interests include functional linguistic approaches to multilingual and multimodal document design, dialogue systems and discourse structure. He has been investigating the relation between language and social context for many years, focusing particularly on accounts of register, genre, functional variation, lexicogrammatical description and theory, multilingual and multimodal linguistic description, and computational instantiations of linguistic theory. He has published widely in all these areas, as well as authoring several introductory and survey articles on natural language generation and systemic-functional linguistics. His current interests centre on the application of functional linguistic and corpus methods to multimodal meaning making, analysing and critiquing multimodal documents of all kinds, the development of linguistically-motivated ontologies, and the construction of computational dialogue systems for robothuman communication. Kim Viljanen is a working as a doctoral candidate in the Semantic Computing Research Group at the Aalto University, focusing on semantic web, linked data, future of web and content management technologies. He has published many scientific papers, has given lots of talks both internationally and in Finland, and acted as a lecturer. Kim has participated in the creation of award winning applications such as the semantic portals MuseumFinland and HealthFinland. He is currently developing the Finnish semantic web infrastructure FinnONTO, focusing his research work on the Ontology Library ONKI. Christoph Lange is a Ph.D. student at Jacobs University Bremen, Germany. His thesis, to be submitted in January 2010, as well as his recent publications, focus on collaborative authoring of mathematical documents using Semantic Web technologies. This involves document ontologies, interactive assistive services embedded into documents, as well as Linked Data publishing. He was a chair of the Semantic Wiki workshop series at ESWC 2008 to 2010, of the ORES (Ontology Repositories) workshop and the AI Mashup Challenge at ESWC 2010, and a PC member of WIMS 2011, the Balisage Markup conference 2010 and 2011, and I-SEMANTICS 2007 through 2011. Program Committee * Li Ding, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA. * John Bateman, Universität Bremen, Germany. * Michael Kohlhase, Jacobs University, Germany. * Raul Palma, Poznan University, Poland. * Oscar Corcho, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain. * Fabian Neuhaus, University of Maryland, USA. * William Hogan, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. * Nigam Shah, Stanford University, USA. * Peter Haase, Institute of Applied Informatics and Formal Description Methods, Germany. * Michael Gruninger, University of Toronto, Canada * Leyla Garcia, Bundeswehr University, Germany. * Benjamin Good, Novartis, USA * Matthew Horridge, University of Manchester, UK * Oliver Kutz, University of Bremen, Germany. * Raul Garcia Castro, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain. * Mike Dean, BBN Technologies, USA. * Steve Pettifer, Manchester University, UK. * Carlos Toro, VICOMTech Industrial Applications. Spain * Riichiro Mizoguchi, Osaka University, Japan. * Carlos Pedrinaci, Open University, England * Jouni Tuominen, University of Helsinki, Finland IMPORTANT DATES - Paper submission deadline: August 15 - Notification of acceptance or rejection: September 5 - Camera ready version due: September 16 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * We are looking forward to your submissions. Please do not hesitate to contact us in case you have any questions. Join us also on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/OCAS-2011/149248101814932 The workshop is collocated with the 10th International Semantic Web Conference ISWC2011 (October 23-27, 2011 - Bonn, Germany): http://iswc2011.semanticweb.org/ Kind regards, Alexander García Castro, Ken Baclawski, John Bateman, Kim Viljanen, Christoph Lange -- Jouni Tuominen | jouni.tuominen(a)aalto.fi | +358 9 470 23346 Project Researcher, Semantic Computing Research Group University of Helsinki, Department of Computer Science Aalto University School of Science, Department of Media Technology Room 2541, Otaniementie 17, Espoo, Finland; P.O. Box 15500, 00076 Aalto, Finland

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TDWG 2011 Programme Committee
by Chuck Miller 29 Apr '11

29 Apr '11

As announced earlier, the 2011 TDWG annual conference will be held on October 16-21, 2011 at the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana located at the entrance to the famous Bourbon Street district. Hank Bart, Director of Tulane Museum of Natural History, is the local sponsor. The Programme Committee for the conference has now been organized. The Committee members are: Chair - Rusty Russell - Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Cyndy Parr - Encyclopedia of Life Greg Riccardi - Florida State University, MorphBank Joel Sachs - University of Maryland Rich Pyle - Bishop Museum Kevin Richards - Landcare Research, New Zealand Hank Bart - Tulane Museum of Natural History Gail Kampmeier - Executive Committee liaison The Programme Committee will be contacting Interest Group Convenors regarding symposia and organization of the program. Information on accommodations, registration, program, abstract submission and other meeting details will soon be made available at www.tdwg.org. Chuck Miller TDWG Chair

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Position Opening: Biological Informatician
by Gail E. Kampmeier 26 Apr '11

26 Apr '11

Please consider or pass this announcement to someone who might be interested in applying for this position. Apologies for cross-posting. For further information please contact Erica Hanson, Human Resources, Illinois Natural History Survey, 217-333-6897, elhanson(a)inhs.illinois.edu. For technical questions, please contact: Dr. Andrew Miller, Search Committee Member, at amiller(a)inhs.illinois.edu. --Gail BIOLOGICAL INFORMATICIAN ILLINOIS NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY, a division of the INSTITUTE OF NATURAL RESOURCE SUSTAINABILITY UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS POSITION: The Illinois Natural History Survey, a division of the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is pleased to announce the position of Biological Informatician. PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Cyber-technology in the Biological Sciences presents a nearly unbounded landscape for development and implementation of extensible and sustainable solutions in dissemination of scientific research data. World-renowned scientific research at the Illinois Natural History Survey, the nation’s second oldest and largest biological survey, continues and with the application of cyber- technologies for integration and dissemination, will continue to have a major impact on society, science, and critical issues such as biodiversity and global climate change. We seek a highly motivated, innovative individual to contribute to a rapidly developing and transformative biodiversity informatics program at the Illinois Natural History Survey. The successful candidate will work with INHS scientists and IT staff to advise, develop, and implement sustainable and extensible database-driven web applications aimed at electronic dissemination of biological research results. Focal areas include biodiversity informatics (ecological and biotic community datasets), a developing extensible cybertaxonomy portal, and amalgamation and synthesis of the INHS natural history collections databases, which currently include more than 11 million objects. Half time will be devoted to informatics for collections-based research, while the other half will be devoted to the Species File program (http://software.speciesfile.org). JOB DESCRIPTION: The successful candidate will be expected to coordinate INHS-wide efforts to develop and implement computer-based solutions for mobilization, use, and sustainability of biodiversity data; collaborate with INHS scientific staff to solicit and secure external funding to support new and ongoing projects related to biodiversity informatics; recruit, train and supervise hourly programmers and undergraduate computer science interns to support funded projects; train INHS scientific staff in the use of biodiversity informatics tools and participate in bioinformatics standards development; serve as liaison between INHS scientists and the INHS webmaster, network administrator, and other INHS/INRS IT support staff. QUALIFICATIONS: This position requires a B.S. in Computer Science, Information Science, or Bio- (biodiversity) informatics. M.S. or Ph.D. degree desired. Emphasis in biological diversity informatics preferred. Individuals with a degree in a biodiversity-related field and relevant coursework and experience in scientific computing will also be considered. Experience with biological informatics support in a laboratory or organization setting is preferred. Experience with database-driven web application development with skills in database design and management, SQL, HTML, Visual Basic, CSS, CMS (e.g. Drupal), and scripting languages (e.g. JavaScript, Python, Perl, Ruby, PHP). Demonstrated ability with programming languages and web application frameworks is required. Familiarity with Web 2.0 programming technologies is highly desirable. SALARY RANGE: $68,000 to $75,000, commensurate with experience. This is a regular, academic professional, full-time, grant-supported, 9-month position/paid over 12-months (academic 9/12). Additional salary support for two summer months may be available through external funding obtained by the candidate through research grants or other funding opportunities.The estimated starting date is July 1, 2011. BENEFITS: Generous sick leave. State Universities Retirement System. Group health, dental, vision and life insurance. APPLICATION PROCESS: Applications must be received by May 27, 2011. To apply, all candidates must submit an online profile through https://jobs.illinois.edu by the close of the posting period. Qualified candidates must upload a cover letter which details qualifications noted above, curriculum vitae, working e-mail address, and the names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of three professional references. All requested information must be submitted for your application to be considered. Incomplete information will not be reviewed. For further information please contact Erica Hanson, Human Resources, Illinois Natural History Survey, 217-333-6897, elhanson(a)inhs.illinois.edu. For technical questions, please contact: Dr. Andrew Miller, Search Committee Member, at amiller(a)inhs.illinois.edu. The University of Illinois is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. The administration, faculty, and staff embrace diversity and are committed to attracting qualified candidates who also embrace and value diversity and inclusivity.

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Job: NESCent User Interface Design and Web Application Developer
by Karen Cranston 02 Mar '11

02 Mar '11

[ Apologies for cross-posting ] The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) seeks a creative and enthusiastic individual to design user interfaces and web applications for scientific applications. The incumbent will work as part of a small informatics team in close collaboration with domain scientists. NESCent (http://nescent.org) is an NSF-funded center dedicated to cross-disciplinary research in evolutionary science. Our informatics team works closely with visiting and resident scientists to support their custom software and database development needs. All NESCent software products are open-source, and the Center has a number of initiatives to actively promote collaborative development of community software resources (http://informatics.nescent.org). Above all, we are enthusiastic about our work, about the mission of the Center, and about the contribution of informatics to that mission. Job description: The incumbent will design and develop user interfaces and web applications for databases and other software tools for sponsored scientists and staff. The job responsibilities include all stages of the software development process, including requirements gathering, design, implementation, release packaging and documentation, as part of a small team (typically 2-3 individuals) following project management best practices. We expect the incumbent to present their work at conferences and contribute to publications with scientific collaborators; interact regularly with visiting and resident scientists, other members of the informatics team and Center staff; and generally serve as an expert resource for Center personnel. The position provides opportunities for professional development. Most informatics staff work at our Durham NC offices, located adjacent to Duke University, but we do support a wide range of technologies for virtual communication with off-site staff and collaborators. Required Qualifications: * Demonstrated success collaborating with clients on custom software solutions * Experience with various stages of the software development cycle * Expertise in development and testing of user interface designs * Excellent communication skills, both virtual and face-to-face Preferred Qualifications: * M.S. or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Bioinformatics or related field * Demonstrated interest in science, particularly biology * Expertise in dynamic and interactive web technologies (JavaScript, CGI) * Expertise in rapid application development and respective programming technologies and languages (e.g., modern scripting languages and web-application frameworks such as Python/Django, Ruby/Ruby-on-Rails, and Perl/Catalyst). * Expertise in graphic design * Expertise in data visualization and/or scientific data integration * Expertise in software usability design and assessment * Expertise in web service (SOAP, REST, XML, JSON) and semantic web technologies * Fluency in Java programming * Prior experience in relational database programming (PostgreSQL or MySQL) * Experience with open-source, and collaborative, software development How to apply: Please send cover letter, resume and contact information for three references to Dr. Karen Cranston, Training Coordinator and Bioinformatics Project Manager (karen.cranston(a)nescent.org). Informal inquires or requests for additional information may be directed to Dr. Cranston by email or phone (+1-919-613-2275). -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ karen.cranston(a)gmail.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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LSID and GUID Applicability Statements approved as new TDWG Standards
by Chuck Miller 21 Feb '11

21 Feb '11

The TDWG Executive Committee has approved the Life Sciences Identifiers Applicability Statement (LSID_AS) and the Globally Unique Identifiers (GUID_AS) Applicability Statement as new TDWG standards. The Executive committee acknowledges Kevin Richards of Landcare New Zealand as author of the GUID Applicability Statement. Likewise, Kevin Richards, Ricardo Pereira (TDWG Infrastructure Project), Donald Hobern (Atlas of Living Australia), Roger Hyam (TDWG Infrastructure Project), Lee Belbin (TDWG Infrastructure Project) and Stan Blum (California Academy of Sciences) as co-authors of the LSID Applicability Statement. The committee also greatly appreciated the patience and perseverance of Ben Richardson of the Department of Environment and Conservation of Western Australia who was the Review Manager for these standards. The process, as can be seen from the institutional associations, was in this case longer than all would have liked, but we hope that the standards will prove useful to the Biodiversity Informatics community. We would also thank all those who were involved as formal or public reviewers of these standards. Your input was greatly appreciated and was in various ways, incorporated into the final standards. These standards can be downloaded from http://www.tdwg.org/standards/150/download/. Chuck Miller TDWG Chair On behalf of the TDWG Executive Committee

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Request for proposal to draft a GBIF white paper on genomic data
by Éamonn Ó Tuama (GBIF) 10 Feb '11

10 Feb '11

[apologies for cross posting] GBIF has announced a call for proposals to draft a position paper on the publishing and discovery of, and access to, primary biodiversity data in the form of genomic level observations. Despite the ubiquity and importance of microbes, they are under-represented in the data published through the GBIF network. The sequencing of microbes directly from environmental samples (known as metagenomics, environmental genomics, ecogenomics, or community genomics) is revolutionising our understanding of microbial diversity in the natural environment and is set to take biodiversity informatics into the data-intensive eScience paradigm characterised by huge volumes of data delivered, in the main, as sensor-generated data streams. In addition, genetic barcoding will be a significant contributor to the genomic “data deluge”, including both observations that can be linked to named specimens as well as “operational taxonomic units” that are not. The focus of this call is on such metagenomic and barcoding data, identifying key activities that will enable GBIF and related communities of practice to participate fully in enabling the sharing and use of such data. Drawing on the needs of the relevant communities, the position paper will provide recommendations and an action plan on how to engage all players in creating a global infrastructure for the publishing and discovery of, and access to, genomic data and, in particular, address issues of interoperability and data integration. Further information on the call is available on the GBIF news site (http://www.gbif.org/communications/news-and-events/showsingle/article/gbif-…) including instructions for submitting an application. Please circulate the call to anyone you think may be interested in applying. With regards, Éamonn Ó Tuama _______________________________________________ Éamonn Ó Tuama, M.Sc., Ph.D. (eotuama(a)gbif.org), Senior Programme Officer, Inventory, Discovery, Access (IDA), Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, DENMARK Phone: +45 3532 1494; Fax: +45 3532 1480

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Another Biodiversity informatics related position in Stockholm
by Torsten Eriksson 09 Feb '11

09 Feb '11

The Department of Biodiversity Informatics at the Swedish Museum of Natural History is searching for a biologist / content manager. Full time 1.5 years with a possible extension. The DINA project is an international collaborative software project dealing with the management of natural history collections (DINA: Digital information system for natural history collections). The project is run jointly by major museums in Sweden and is currently being extended to museums in the Nordic/Baltic countries. The position will be placed at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, Sweden. The successful candidate will work with museum curators and database managers – and their collection data – at partner institutions. The main focus will be to guide and help with the adaptation and transfer of currently available data into the DINA database, and to be a part of the planning, adaption and configuration of client workflows, based on local requirements. Another important task will be arranging DINA workshops and user education. Last day of application is 21 February 2011 (GMT+1). For more information about the project, see http://dina-project.net More info about the position and how to apply, see http://dina-project.net/pub/Main/DinaProjectNews/biologist.pdf Torsten Eriksson

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