Apologies for cross posts - and please feel free to distribute this announcement to all relevant communities.

TDWG is pleased to announce the commencement of the Public Review of Darwin Core - a standard for sharing biodiversity information. You will find the proposed standard is a living document with a history, an anchor in the Dublin Core, and mechanisms to grow and change. Since being officially put forward as a draft standard in February 2009, Darwin Core 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 11th July through at least 10th August 2009.

How to Participate: Visit the Darwin Core Progress site (http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/DarwinCoreProgress) for the latest background information on the process and critical links to content (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/index.htm) and participation. To discuss ideas with others or offer comments that are not targeted for action, please subscribe (http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-content) and contribute to the tdwg-content mailing list (tdwg-content(at)lists.tdwg.org). Recommended actions or issues should be submitted to the Issue Tracker of the Darwin Core (http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/SubmittingIssues) so that they may be assigned, prioritized, and tracked. This Public Review process will be archived along with all other documentation in the TDWG Standards Track. Questions about the process should be directed to the Review Manager, Gail Kampmeier (gkamp(at)illinois.edu).

Please share this opportunity for public comment and review with others you think may be interested.

Acknowledgements: As Review Manager, I would like to express my gratitude to the authors, John Wieczorek, (MVZ), Markus Döring (GBIF), Renato De Giovanni (CRIA), Tim Robertson (GBIF), Dave Vieglais (KUNHM) for the enormous efforts made in bringing the Darwin Core standard to this point; to the initial anonymous peer reviewers, and to Lee Belbin and the rest of the TDWG Executive for their advice, support, and encouragement in this process; and to GBIF for tipping the scales by bringing together the authors in a workshop that led to this submission.

Links expanded: Darwin Core Progress - http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/DarwinCoreProgress Darwin Core content - http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/index.htm Subscribe to tdwg-content - http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-content Issue Tracker - http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/SubmittingIssues

Related Links: TDWG: http://www.tdwg.org/ Other TDWG Standards: http://www.tdwg.org/standards/ TDWG Standards Track (in OJS): http://www.tdwg.org/stdtrack/index Dublin Core’s Metadata Initiative in Science: http://ils.unc.edu/spaces/sam/index.php/Main_Page

Sincerely, Gail E. Kampmeier, Review Manager Illinois Natural History Survey, Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1816 South Oak St., Champaign, Illinois 61820 USA email: gkamp(at)illinois.edu

Lee Belbin TDWG Secretariat