[Posted on behalf of Walter Berendsohn]
Dear TDWG List subscribers:
Some news regarding TDWG activities:
* Membership *
To start with the most important: TDWG accounts are in the process to be moved to the new Treasurer - so please, don't be impatient, your bill for 2005 membership will soon be ready.
* Support *
A piece of very good news in these times of diminishing institutional commitments to the common good: The Natural History Museum in London has agreed to commit a substantial part of our elected Secretary's working time to TDWG matters, an essential pre-requisite especially for the preparation of the ever-growing annual meetings.
* TDWG 2005 *
As Adrian Rissoné has already informed you, the next TDWG meeting will take place in St. Petersburg, Russia, September 11-18. See http://www.tdwg.org/2005meet/TDWG_2005_Intro.htm for up-to-date information.
* New Standards to be voted on *
Perhaps the most important development is that four of the draft standards discussed during the Christchurch meeting have now formally been submitted to the Executive Committee for voting during TDWG 2005:
- Darwin Core 2 (http://darwincore.calacademy.org/), "a simple set of data element definitions designed to support the sharing and integration of primary biodiversity data".
- Access to Biological Collection Data (ABCD) 2.0 (http://www.bgbm.org/TDWG/CODATA/Schema/), "an evolving comprehensive standard for the access to and exchange of data about specimens and observations (a.k.a. primary biodiversity data)".
- Structure of descriptive data (SDD) 1.0 (http://wiki.cs.umb.edu/twiki/bin/view/SDD/CurrentSchemaVersion).
- Taxonomic Concept Transfer Schema (TCS) 1 (http://tdwg.napier.ac.uk)
Please feel free to comment and contribute. The working groups will continue to improve their drafts until a final edited version will be submitted by the Executive Committee to the membership by July 17, 2005.
* New proposed standards *
Other working groups will contribute proposed standards, which will also be discussed during the meeting in St. Petersburg (this is a prerequisite for submission as a new TDWG standard in 2006). These also have to be circulated by July 17. Proposed standard should be send before that date to the TDWG Secretary Adrian Rissoné (a.rissone@nhm.ac.uk).
With best wishes
Walter Berendsohn Chair, TDWG Executive Committee 2005