- tdwg - lists.tdwg.org

Bioblitz at TDWG 2010?
by joel sachs 06 Dec '09

06 Dec '09

Greetings TDWG, One of the outcomes of our citizen science working session in Montpellier is the idea of holding a mini-bioblitz near the conference center at TDWG 2010. We thought this would be fun, would bring communities together, and would be an opportunity to eat our own dog food, since so much TDWG technology could be brought to bare. I think we're going to do it. We've started discussion here: http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/BioBlitz2010 Please join the discussion by adding ideas, questions, and concerns. Also, if you have experience in, or enthusiasm for, bioblitz-type activities, please consider volunteering to help with planning and execution. Best to all - Joel.

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call for proposals on GBIF white paper for enhancing fitness-for-use of primary biodiversity data
by Éamonn Ó Tuama 23 Nov '09

23 Nov '09

At TDWG 2009, there was some interest from the Geospatial Interest Group working sessions participants in the call from GBIF for proposals to draft a GBIF White Paper for enhancing 'fitness-for-use' (both taxonomic and geospatial) of primary biodiversity data. Further information on the call is available here: http://www.gbif.org/communications/news-and-events/showsingle/article/enhaci ng-fitness-for-use-of-primary-biodiversity-data/ . or, directly, from Dr Vishwas Chavan (vchavan(a)gbif.org) Please note that the closing date is Nov 25. Best regards, Éamonn _______________________________________________ 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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FW: Public Review of GUID and LSID Applicability Statement
by Richardson, Ben 23 Nov '09

23 Nov '09

Hi Just a reminder that the Public Review is shortly to close, and that your input is welcomed on the Applicability Statement. (The dates noted below for the review period should state 26th October till at least 26th November, so you still have time.) Thank you to those who have already commented. Cheers, Ben ________________________________ From: Richardson, Ben Sent: Monday, 26 October 2009 14:49 To: tdwg(a)lists.tdwg.org Cc: tdwg-content(a)lists.tdwg.org; tdwg-tag(a)lists.tdwg.org; taxacom(a)mailman.nhm.ku.edu Subject: Public Review of GUID and LSID Applicability Statement TDWG is pleased to announce the commencement of the Public Review of the Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) and Life Sciences Identifier (LSID) Applicability Statements. Applicability Statements provide guidance for use of external standards within the TDWG domain. The GUID statement provides general recommendations and the LSID one covers the specific GUID currently recommended by TDWG. Since being officially submitted, the Applicability Statements have undergone a peer review, a review by the TDWG Executive and multiple revisions. Open Invitation: We invite all who may contribute and/or consume biodiversity information to examine this proposed applicability statement during the Public Review period from 23rd October till at least 23rd November 2009. How to Participate: You can participate in the review of the GUID-LSID AS in two ways; either through lodging a comment through TDWG’s Open Journal System, or you can take the Microsoft Word document and edit it with track changes and resubmit it to the GUID-LSID AS Wiki space. You can post comments to the Open Journal System (which may be anonymous) at http://www.tdwg.org/stdtrack/article/view/150. The abstract is displayed and on the right hand side of the page is a link to add a comment. Please note: you must be registered and logged in to the TDWG web site to post a comment, however registration is free. Down the bottom of the page, there is a link to download the complete applicability statement. You can also comment direct in a copy of the document as follows: · At the previous URL, download a copy of the Microsoft Word format document. · Once you have downloaded it, turn on track changes and make your notes and comments. · Submit that file at http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/GUID/GUIDAndLSIDASReview. Please DO NOT add any comments to the Wiki page, comment only through the two methods outlined above. Questions about the process should be directed to me at ben(dot)richardson(at)dec.wa.gov.au. Please share this opportunity for public comment and review with others you think may be interested. Acknowledgements: I’d like to thank the authors, the anonymous reviewers and the members of the Executive Committee for their contribution to the document. In addition, the guidance of Lee Belbin through the review process has been invaluable and greatly appreciated. Links: · GUID and LSID AS comment area in OJS http://www.tdwg.org/stdtrack/article/view/150. · LSID Wiki space: http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/GUID/GUIDAndLSIDASReview · LSID Resolution Project home page: http://lsids.sourceforge.net/ · LSID Specification: http://lsids.sourceforge.net/quick-links/lsid-spec/ Please accept my apology if you’ve received this multiple times from various mailing lists. Regards, Ben Richardson This email, together with any attachments, is intended for the addressee only. It may contain confidential or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, please notify the sender, delete the email and attachments from your system and destroy any copies you may have taken of the email and its attachments. Duplication or further distribution by hardcopy, by electronic means or verbally is not permitted without permission.

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Drupal and biodiversity informatics
by Lisa Walley 13 Nov '09

13 Nov '09

There is a growing number of biodiversity Web applications being built using the Drupal content management system (http://groups.drupal.org/node/30444 ). The nature of Drupal's modular framework lends itself to collaborative development. I would like to invite all interested in building or using Drupal for managing biodiversity data to join the Drupal discussion group Bioinformatics: http://groups.drupal.org/bioinformatics . Up and coming discussions are on improvements to handling bibliographic information: http://groups.drupal.org/node/35334 If there proves to be enough interest then I hope we can pursue a 'common data model' for biodiversity data in Drupal. Essentially building common base content-types that follow the standards outlined by TDWG and compatible with or possibly even make direct use of EDIT's CDM framework: http://groups.drupal.org/node/35338 Please invite any interested colleagues to join the discussions. Kind regards, Lisa Lisa Walley

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Public Review of GUID and LSID Applicability Statement
by Richardson, Ben 26 Oct '09

26 Oct '09

TDWG is pleased to announce the commencement of the Public Review of the Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) and Life Sciences Identifier (LSID) Applicability Statements. Applicability Statements provide guidance for use of external standards within the TDWG domain. The GUID statement provides general recommendations and the LSID one covers the specific GUID currently recommended by TDWG. Since being officially submitted, the Applicability Statements have undergone a peer review, a review by the TDWG Executive and multiple revisions. Open Invitation: We invite all who may contribute and/or consume biodiversity information to examine this proposed applicability statement during the Public Review period from 23rd October till at least 23rd November 2009. How to Participate: You can participate in the review of the GUID-LSID AS in two ways; either through lodging a comment through TDWG’s Open Journal System, or you can take the Microsoft Word document and edit it with track changes and resubmit it to the GUID-LSID AS Wiki space. You can post comments to the Open Journal System (which may be anonymous) at http://www.tdwg.org/stdtrack/article/view/150. The abstract is displayed and on the right hand side of the page is a link to add a comment. Please note: you must be registered and logged in to the TDWG web site to post a comment, however registration is free. Down the bottom of the page, there is a link to download the complete applicability statement. You can also comment direct in a copy of the document as follows: · At the previous URL, download a copy of the Microsoft Word format document. · Once you have downloaded it, turn on track changes and make your notes and comments. · Submit that file at http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/GUID/GUIDAndLSIDASReview. Please DO NOT add any comments to the Wiki page, comment only through the two methods outlined above. Questions about the process should be directed to me at ben(dot)richardson(at)dec.wa.gov.au. Please share this opportunity for public comment and review with others you think may be interested. Acknowledgements: I’d like to thank the authors, the anonymous reviewers and the members of the Executive Committee for their contribution to the document. In addition, the guidance of Lee Belbin through the review process has been invaluable and greatly appreciated. Links: · GUID and LSID AS comment area in OJS http://www.tdwg.org/stdtrack/article/view/150. · LSID Wiki space: http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/GUID/GUIDAndLSIDASReview · LSID Resolution Project home page: http://lsids.sourceforge.net/ · LSID Specification: http://lsids.sourceforge.net/quick-links/lsid-spec/ Please accept my apology if you’ve received this multiple times from various mailing lists. Regards, Ben Richardson This email, together with any attachments, is intended for the addressee only. It may contain confidential or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, please notify the sender, delete the email and attachments from your system and destroy any copies you may have taken of the email and its attachments. Duplication or further distribution by hardcopy, by electronic means or verbally is not permitted without permission.

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Public Review of TAPIR
by Piers Higgs 16 Oct '09

16 Oct '09

Public Review of TAPIR TDWG is pleased to announce the commencement of the Public Review of the TDWG Access Protocol for Information Retrieval TAPIR - a method for sharing biodiversity information. Since being officially put forward as a draft, TAPIR has undergone a peer review, a review by the TDWG Executive and multiple revisions. Open Invitation: We invite all who may contribute and/or consume biodiversity information to examine this proposed standard during the Public Review period from 10th September through at least until the 10th November 2009. How to Participate: You can participate in the review of TAPIR in two ways; either through lodging a comment through TDWG's Open Journal System, or you can take the Microsoft Word document and edit it with track changes and resubmit it to the TAPIR Wiki space. To post comments to the Open Journal System (that can be anonymous), go to http://www.tdwg.org/stdtrack/article/view/449/39 <http://www.tdwg.org/stdtrack/article/view/449/39> . On the right hand side of the page is a link to add a comment. At the previous URL, you can also download a copy of the Microsoft Word format specification. Once you have downloaded it, turn on track changes and make your notes and comments. You can then submit that file at http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/TAPIR/TapirReview <http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/TAPIR/TapirReview> . Please DO NOT add any comments to the Wiki page, only via the OJS page. Questions about the process should be directed to me at piers(at)gaiaresources.com.au. Please share this opportunity for public comment and review with others you think may be interested. Acknowledgements: I'd like to thank the authors, the anonymous reviewers and the members of the Executive Committee who reviewed the standard. In addition, the guidance of Lee Belbin through the review process has been invaluable and greatly appreciated. Links expanded: TAPIR Specification in HTML - http://www.tdwg.org/dav/subgroups/tapir/1.0/docs/tdwg_tapir_specificatio n_2009-09-08.htm <http://www.tdwg.org/dav/subgroups/tapir/1.0/docs/tdwg_tapir_specificati on_2009-09-08.htm> Official TAPIR Website - http://www.tdwg.org/subgroups/tapir/ <http://www.tdwg.org/subgroups/tapir/> Various TAPIR software packages - http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/TAPIR/TapirSoftware <http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/TAPIR/TapirSoftware> Subscribe to tdwg-tag - http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-tag Related Links: TDWG: http://www.tdwg.org/ <http://www.tdwg.org/> Other TDWG Standards: http://www.tdwg.org/standards/ <http://www.tdwg.org/standards/> TDWG Standards Track (in OJS): http://www.tdwg.org/stdtrack/index <http://www.tdwg.org/stdtrack/index> Apologies if you receive this multiple times from various mailing lists. Sincerely, Piers Higgs, Review Manager ------------------------------------------------------- Piers Higgs Gaia Resources p +61 8 92277309 m +61 411 754 006 w www.gaiaresources.com.au e piers(a)gaiaresources.com.au -------------------------------------------------------

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Darwin Core Ratified as a TDWG Standard
by Lee Belbin 09 Oct '09

09 Oct '09

The TDWG Executive Committee announces the official ratification of Darwin Core (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/index.htm) as a TDWG standard. Darwin Core joins four other TDWG standards- http://www.tdwg.org/standards/ that provide a reference for sharing information about biodiversity. Lead author, John Wieczorek, and his co-authors, Markus Döring, Renato de Giovanni, Tim Robertson, and Dave Vieglais have done an amazing job in writing, organizing, and dealing with feedback during the review process. We can only have a small insight into the effort that John and his team have invested in Darwin Core. We also appreciate the work that Gail Kampmeier has done as Review Manager since her appointment in February 2009. There was an initial peer review followed by two months of public review, punctuated by ongoing discussions and periodic updating of the draft standard now being ratified by the TDWG Executive Committee. John, Markus, Renato, Tim, Dave and Gail deserve contributions of good French wine in Montpellier! Thank you and congratulations to all who contributed. Donald Hobern, Chairman, TDWG.

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Job Posting: Biodiversity Informatics, Tulane University
by Nelson Rios 05 Oct '09

05 Oct '09

The Tulane University Museum of Natural History is seeking a programmer with experience in biodiversity informatics and Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to work on the GEOLocate Project, a software application for semi-automated georeferencing of natural history collections data (http://www.museum.tulane.edu/geolocate) Minimum Required qualifications include: a B. S. or B. A. in computer science or related field, 2 years professional programming experience with Java and GIS, specifically WMS & WFS client application development, and proficiency utilizing web services. Previous working experience on other biodiversity informatics projects preferred. The position is located at the Tulane Museum of Natural History in Belle Chasse, LA. Interested applicants should submit resume, a statement of professional goals, and names, addresses and telephone numbers of three references at: http://www.profilesams.com/index.asp?siteid=TULNAMS Posting # 103191 Software Developer , ECOL AND EVOL BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT, UPTOWN CAMPUS, 3170 Additional inquiries, contact Nelson Rios (nelson(a)museum.tulane.edu)

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Charles Copp
by Adrian Rissone 27 Sep '09

27 Sep '09

It is with very deep sadness that I report the death of Charles Copp on Thursday September 24th 2009 after a long and valiant struggle against a brain tumour. Many people in our communities will have come across Charles in his varied career in geology, ecology, collections management and databasing, site recording, biodiversity informatics and countless other subjects. Those who spend any time with him will have discovered his extraordinary love of life and the world around him - and doubtless his equally extraordinary sense of humour! There will be a celebration of Charles' life in his home town of Clevedon, Somerset (UK), on October 8th. I will be pleased to pass on any thoughts you may wish to express to Charles' wife, Judy, and to discuss arrangements with you should you wish to attend on that day. I will also be gathering for Judy and the family memories, anecdotes and photographs of Charles on his many activities so I would be grateful for anything you can send me in the next few days. Please pass on this message to anyone who may have known Charles but is not likely to be a recipient of the TDWG or Taxacom mailing lists. Regards, Adrian Mr Adrian Rissone Department of Palaeontology Natural History Museum Cromwell Road London SW7 5BD United Kingdom E-mail: A.Rissone(a)nhm.ac.uk Executive Secretary Taxonomic Databases Working Group (TDWG)

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Training for Scratchpads
by Dave Roberts 22 Sep '09

22 Sep '09

Dear all, apologies for cross-posting. A training course in the use of Scratchpads (http://scratchpads.eu) will be available immediately after the EDIT general meeting in Carvoeiro this December. The course is aimed at those who manage sites on behalf of their community (site maintainers). Note also that there will be a workshop in this year's TDWG meeting in Montpellier (http://www.tdwg.org/conference2009 ) about the logistics of maintaining your own Scratchpad server. EDIT will be funding participation in the general meeting for those at EDIT member institutions through your local team leader and this can be extended for an additional night to cover the training course. The deadline for travel funding is 16th October. Course registration is open until 1st December. To apply for training, go to http://scratchpads.eu/scratchpad-training-courses Cheers, Dave -- Dr D.McL. Roberts, Tel: +44 (0)20 7942 5086 European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy Project, Coordinator WorkPackage 6 (Unifying Revisionary Taxonomy), Dept. Zoology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD Great Britain Email: dmr(a)nomencurator.org Web page: http://scratchpads.eu Web page: http://www.editwebrevisions.info/ -- "You can't just ask customers what they want and then try and give it to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new." [Steve Jobs, quoted in The Guardian, Technology Section, 25 June 09]. --

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