TDWG/GBIF Call for Participation: Globally Unique Identifiers for Biodiversity Informatics --------------------------------------------------------

Background ----------

The Taxonomic Databases Working Group (http://www.tdwg.org/) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (http://www.gbif.org/) have received funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (http://www.moore.org) to strengthen the infrastructure supporting the interchange of biodiversity data. A TDWG Infrastructure Project Team has now been established and is seeking requirements for globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) for biodiversity informatics, and to establish infrastructure to support their use.

This review will consider how GUIDs could benefit all communities exchanging biodiversity data. TDWG and GBIF are therefore seeking input from institutions with an interest in organismal biodiversity data (including, but not limited to: natural history museums, herbaria, culture collections, gene banks, zoological and botanical gardens, and biological monitoring projects).

Process -------

The planned process is as follows:

* Survey the requirements: an open call for input from all areas of biodiversity informatics (using mailing lists and/or Wikis to support public discussion). * First workshop to review requirements, to evaluate candidate technologies and to establish working groups. The workshop will be limited to around 25 participants is planned to take place 1-3 February 2006 at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA (http://www.nescent.org/). Our thanks go to Cliff Cunningham at NESCent for hosting this workshop. * Working groups will address identified tasks using mailing lists and/or Wikis to support public discussion and provide recommendations. * Second workshop to review working group recommendations and to define models and processes for initial implementation. The workshop will be limited to around 25 participants for 3 days and take place in mid-2006 at a location to be announced. * Publication of TDWG standards for GUIDs and an initial implementation of any associated services and support tools.

How to participate ------------------

Provide input to the survey of requirements through one of the following:

* Add comments or edit pages in the wiki at http://wiki.gbif.org/guidwiki. If you wish to become actively involved and attend the workshops please add content describing your experience and interests to a wiki page associated with your name. * Subscribe to the mailing list TDWG-GUID@listserv.nhm.ku.edu at http://listserv.nhm.ku.edu/archives/tdwg-guid.html - your comments may then be added to the Wiki.

Your input is particularly sought if:

* You are involved in a project that is experimenting with or using some form of GUID technology (LSID, DOI, etc.). We would value comments on strengths and weaknesses of the approach and your experience in deploying solutions (see http://wiki.gbif.org/guidwiki/wikka.php?wakka=ExistingProjects). * You can describe ways in which GUIDs could be used to solve problems within your domain of interest (see http://wiki.gbif.org/guidwiki/wikka.php?wakka=GUIDUseCases).

Send an expression of interest to participate in the GUID workshops.

Please send such applications to guids@gbif.org, providing the following information:

1. Name and contact details 2. Institutional affiliation 3. Specific area(s) of interest within biodiversity informatics 4. Reasons for interest in participation in GUID standards development 5. Would you be able to devote time to web-based discussions as part of a working group between the two workshops? 6. Would you require support to attend the workshops? If so, to what extent?

Please also include items 1-5 on your wiki page

Workshops ---------

* The first workshop will take place at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), Durham, North Carolina, USA, 1-3 February 2006. * The workshops are intended to be focused working sessions, and therefore attendance will be limited * Participants will be selected on the basis of expertise, experience, contributions to discussions, willingness to devote time to a working group, and diversity of attendees' backgrounds and institutions.

Contacts --------

For further information, please send messages to guids@gbif.org.

The TDWG Infrastructure Project Team is:

* Lee Belbin, Australia - Project Manager * Roger Hyam, United Kingdom - Technical Architect * Ricardo Pereira, Brazil - Senior Software Engineer

The GBIF contact is:

* Donald Hobern, Programmer Officer for Data Access and Database Interoperability (dhobern@gbif.org)

--------------------------------------------------------------- Donald Hobern (dhobern@gbif.org) Programme Officer for Data Access and Database Interoperability Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark Tel: +45-35321483   Mobile: +45-28751483   Fax: +45-35321480 ---------------------------------------------------------------