TDWG List subscribers: The 2002 TDWG meeting will be held October 18-22, in Campinas, Brasil. Our host will be the Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental (CRIA) [Reference Center on Environmental Information] -- Vanderlei Perez Canhos, President & Director. The TDWG meeting will be held (concurrently) with a Species 2000 meeting (Oct 19-20). In addition, each organization will host an all-day symposium (sequentially) on the following two days (Oct 21-22). Subgroups, working groups, and interest groups may meet (as necessary) from one to three days before the main meetings. Satellite events, such as training workshops or meetings of related organizations may be scheduled in the days following the symposia. (See an overview of the schedule, below.) The main TDWG meeting will consist of: - Contributed papers - Subgroup reports (progress and plans) - Business meeting - Discussion and planning of future activities The TDWG Symposium: The recently established Global Biodiversity Information Facility (http://www.gbif.org/) has already begun activities that will profoundly influence the acquisition, management, and dissemination of biodiversity information. GBIF-sponsored activities, in turn, will highlight the need for standards that will guide the work of potential data providers, integrators, and developers of analysis services. To ensure that TDWG's work supports and compliments GBIF activities, TDWG will hold a symposium dedicated to elaborating a framework for interoperability and identifying the (missing) standards that will be critical to building the infrastructure. The program is still to be determined, but is likely to include: reviews of GBIF activities and broader trends in information technology (e.g., XML technologies and web services), position papers, and discussion. This year's meeting promises to be informative, important to the development of TDWG, and fun(!). I hope to see you there. Stan Blum Chair, TDWG Executive Committee sblum@calacademy.org TDWG and Species 2000 Meetings; Campinas, Brasil; October 18-22, 2002 SCHEDULE: Oct 16 (Wed): working- and subgroups (tentative) Oct 17 (Thu): working- and subgroups (tentative) Oct 18 (Fri): working- and subgroups Oct 19 (Sat): Sp2000 & TDWG meetings (concurrently) Oct 20 (Sun): Sp2000 & TDWG meetings (concurrently) Oct 21 (Mon): Species 2000 Symposium -- Catalog of Life Oct 22 (Tue): TDWG Symposium -- Framework for Interoperability Oct 23 (Wed): Satellite events (to be determined) Oct 24 (Thu): Satellite events (to be determined)