Employer: GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY INFORMATION FACILITY
Position: Senior Programme Officer for the Electronic Catalogue of Names of
Known Organisms (ECAT)
GBIF is an independent international organisation whose overall mission is
to work with its partners to provide free and universal access to the
worlds primary biodiversity data.
We seek a dynamic individual to join our multinational staff and assume
leadership in completing the Electronic Catalogue of Names of Known
Organisms (ECAT). Upon completion, ECAT will provide web access to the
currently used names and synonyms for all 1.8 million described species of
organisms. ECAT is a collaborative venture with other international
initiatives and organisations worldwide; the Programme Officer is expected
to be conversant with these partners and be able to interact effectively
with them at a high level. At the present time, ECAT contains the valid
scientific names and synonyms for about 500,000 species, most of them
derived from the Catalogue of Life Partnership (Species 2000 and ITIS). The
goal is to complete ECAT no later than 2011.
The successful applicant must have a deep understanding and broad experience
in biological systematics and taxonomic procedures, including either a Ph.D.
with a taxonomic or systematic component, or a B.S. in biology or computer
science with considerable postgraduate experience in taxonomy. He or she
must also be conversant with biodiversity databases, web tools and XML. The
position is challenging, requiring excellent management skills, such as the
capability to work within the scientific community and with other user
groups to develop and carry out long-range plans, including the setting of
priorities. The individual must also have good communication skills,
excellent written and spoken English, flexibility in approaching problems
and people, and enthusiasm for helping GBIF to succeed. In return, she or he
will find a stimulating and significant programme of work, excellent
opportunities to represent GBIF at major international fora, and a congenial
work environment with outstanding colleagues from around the world.
The post-holder will be required to work at the GBIF Secretariat in
Copenhagen, Denmark. The post is available for a period of 2-5 years
starting on approximately 1 April 2006. Salary and benefits are competitive.
All applicants will be considered, irrespective of age, sex, race, religion,
nationality or ethnic background.
Full details about the position, and instructions on applying for it, can be
found at http://www.gbif.org/prog/ecat/ecat_position.
RESULTS OF TIME LIMITED BALLOT ON PROPOSED STANDARDS 2005
The following proposed standards were recommended for ratification at the
TDWG Annual Meeting in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, during the week
beginning 11 September 2005. In accordance with the TDWG Constitution and
By-Laws a vote by all members in good standing on final ratification of
each proposed standard was required.
Ballot papers were sent out to all current members in good standing, for
return to me (a.rissone(a)nhm.ac.uk) by 12:00 (midday) GMT on 23 October 2005.
The result received up to the originally announced deadline (23 October
2005) was:
Members voting 14
ABCD Yes vote 14
ABCD No vote 0
SDD Yes vote 14
SDD No vote 0
TCS Yes vote 14
TCS No vote 0
The poor response and apparent misunderstanding by some members of the
proceedures led the Executive to extend the deadline up to 31 October 2005,
with the result coming to:
Members voting 27
ABCD Yes vote 27
ABCD No vote 0
SDD Yes vote 26
SDD No vote 0
TCS Yes vote 26
TCS No vote 1
One vote was cast 3 days late, fully supporting the three proposed
standards.
The following table summarises the votes received from the TDWG membership:
Total members eligible to vote: 55
Members voting 28
ABCD Yes vote 28
ABCD No vote 0
SDD Yes vote 27
SDD No vote 0
TCS Yes vote 27
TCS No vote 1
All three standards are thus accepted as APPROVED
Members in good standing will receive printed copies where the standards or
their documentation will be published with the assistance of TDWG.
Adrian Rissone
Secretary, Taxonomic Databases Working Group
A.Rissone(a)nhm.ac.uk
----------------------------------------
Proposed Standard: ABCD (Access to Biological Collections Data)
The Access to Biological Collections Data (ABCD) Schema 2.0 is a
comprehensive standard for access to and the exchange of data about
specimens and observations (a.k.a. primary biodiversity data). It is based
on information models such as ASC and BioCISE and incorporates many
existing exchange standards. Further information at:
http://www.bgbm.org/TDWG/CODATA/Schema/
Proposed Standard: SDD (Structure Descriptive Data)
Major changes are incorporated in the latest version of SDD:
All object types are derived from abstract base type. ExternalDataInterface
grouping given up, all object types, including SDD ones treated
symmetrically. Multilingual representation was simplified (one level of
nesting less than previous version). The text character facility was
redesigned to be expressed differently in xml, the previous solution was
considered unintuitive. This involves element name and structural changes,
but no essential changes in functionality. The expression of measurement
units was simplified, rather than allowing multiple units within a
character (which required structures to define units and their conversion
methods), only one unit may be defined, which may be accompanied with
different scientific prefix letters (k, c, m, ) in different descriptions.
http://160.45.63.11/Projects/TDWG-SDD/index.htmlhttp://wiki.cs.umb.edu/twiki/bin/view/SDD/WebHome
Proposed Standard: TCS (Taxonomic Concept Transfer Schema)
The Taxon Concept Schema (TCS) was developed to enable the transfer of
taxonomic name and concept data using an abstract model of taxonomic
concepts which can capture the range of models represented and understood
by the various taxonomic data providers. The model, presented as an XML
schema document, has been through several revisions which have been
presented in different fora and discussed on the tcs-lc(a)ecoinformatics.org
mailing list and the TCS Wiki at http://tdwg.napier.ac.uk where all
previous versions of the schema can be obtained along with related
documentation. At TDWG 2005 TCS v1.0 was voted to be recommended as a TDWG
standard. Minor issues were discussed and proposals for minor changes to
TCS are being accepted until 30th September at which point TCS v1.0 will be
fixed for the ballot. Discussion on minor changes continues on tcs-lc
mailing list and the final version 1.0 will be posted on the Wiki.
At the TDWG meeting in St. Petersburg the SpeciesPages interest group was formed.
This group will discuss the needs to exchange SpeciesPage data and might become a formal TDWG subgroup in the future.
I've created a WIKI for the SpeciesPages interest group, which can be found at: http://ip50.eti.uva.nl/TDWGSpecies.
The Purposes of this WIKI are to gather information about developments and projects which involve SpeciesPages and to discuss the needs to exchange SpeciesPage data.
You are invited to use it and to contribute to this WIKI. Registration is not necessary, except if you want to add files. If you know other people that are interested in SpeciesPages, please inform them about this WIKI!
Regards,
Wouter Addink
ETI BioInformatics
