Dear all, we have drawn together the initial ideas and contributions people have made into a first draft here: http://is.gd/WhitePaperChapters The format we've chosen to use follows the LERU report (link is on the first page of the Googledoc) which pitches a bullet point followed by a supporting paragraph. Inevitably this is too short to take much of the argument made in some contributions. I suggest that people can either tidy up their chapters and we bundle them in an annex or I'll try and edit them from notes into English and keep them as available. Note also the details of the public meeting in Brussels on 17th July. Details on the Googledoc. Please modify the document directly, but log into Google or otherwise identify yourself so that we can add you to Annex 1 (list of contributors). Cheers, Dave Roberts -- Dr D.McL. Roberts, Tel: +44 (0)20 7942 5086 Dept. Zoology, Fax: +44 (0)20 7942 5054 The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD Great Britain Email: dmr at nomencurator dot org Web page: http://scratchpads.eu http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/projects/euk-extreme/ -- "Researchers typically build databases the quickest way they know how, without necessarily considering whether they will work with other databases." Heidi Ledford, Nature 25 June 09, p1048. --