[Apologies for cross posting]

Last September, GBIF convened a group to prepare a white paper on Knowledge Organisation Systems (i.e., Controlled Vocabularies, Ontologies, Thesauri, etc.) for biodiversity informatics (see http://www.gbif.org/communications/news-and-events/showsingle/article/gbif-position-paper-on-vocabulariesontologies/). A draft of this paper is now available for review.

You are invited to review (or circulate for review to interested colleagues) the draft document available for download from the GBIF Community Site: http://bit.ly/GBIFKOS_Comments. Instructions for providing feedback are included there.

Regrettably, the time for initial public comment is short. Anything not received by December 7, 2010 will not influence the final draft of the White Paper, though will remain available for GBIF to consider as it acts on the White Paper recommendations.

With regards,

Éamonn Ó Tuama

[On behalf of Robert A. Morris, GBIFKOS White Paper Convener]

_______________________________________________

Éamonn Ó Tuama, M.Sc., Ph.D. (eotuama@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