October 2013 - tdwg - lists.tdwg.org

In Memoriam Dr Richard Pankhurst
by Mergen Patricia 14 Dec '15

14 Dec '15

Dear Colleagues, On behalf of TDWG we are very sorry to inform you that Richard John Pankhurst passed away on Tuesday 26 March after fighting oesophageal cancer for many years. He was a very important contributer and friend of TDWG, as can be judged from his short CV from the BioCISE directory: Dr Richard Pankhurst began his career in computing in the computer section at CERN, Geneva in 1963, and moving back to Cambridge to work on Computer-Aided Design in 1966. In 1971 he moved to the Botany School, Cambridge to begin work on his PANKEY programs for identification and key construction. This was continued at the Botany department of the Natural History Museum from 1974 until 1991, where he was for many years curator of the British herbarium, and also worked on the Flora Meso-Americana. "Biological Identification", 1978, was the first textbook on computer methods in identification. A new version of this book was published by C.U.P in 1991. Also published in that year was the Flora of the Outer Hebrides. With over 50 publications of refereed papers and books in the fields of taxonomic computing he has made major contributions to these fields. Dr. Pankhurst has been very active recently in programming and managing botanical databases (Flora Europaea, BSBI database and PANDORA) and systems with images. He was appointed Principal Scientific Officer at the RGB Edinburgh in 1991. Dr. Pankhurst served on various committees of British and international organizations, among others. Botanical Society of the British Isles, Committee for Scotland and Database Committee. Botanical Society of Scotland, Council. Taxonomic Databases Working Group, convener of Descriptors Group. International Organisation for Plant Information, co-convener of Information Systems Committee, Checklist Committee. Dr. Pankhurst was the head of the Department of Taxonomic Computing at RGBE. After his official retirement, he compiled a large database of the Rose family. His work on recording the wild flowers of the Outer Hebrides took him frequently to these remote islands on behalf of the Botanical Society of the British Isles. His interest in Taraxacum (dandelions) was acknowledged when a species found only on St. Kilda was named *Taraxacum pankhurstianum*. In Richard, not only a very important scientist was lost to our community, but also a very pleasant collaborator and friend . <patricia.mergen(a)africamuseum.be> Dr. Patricia Mergen (General Secretary of TDWG, on behalf of the Executive Committee) Head of Biodiversity Information and Cybertaxonomy Royal Museum for Central Africa Leuvensesteenweg 13 B-3080 Tervuren Belgium + 32 2 769 5 *626* patricia.mergen(a)africamuseum.be

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BioVeL Training Workshops Autumn 2013
by Jong, Yde de 19 Mar '14

19 Mar '14

[cid:_2_0D2267A80D226240004E96E980257BF0] BioVeL, a virtual laboratory for biodiversity research data, is offering two training workshops «Introduction to workflows for taxonomic refinement, biogeographic analysis, and species distribution modelling» November 26-27, 2013, Cardiff University, UK Description of the workshop and registration<http://frb.eole-emailing.net/l.php?q=C7R0bdUyZhX7O4KA8AcP&l=mhEt9SDFpiH4jmM…> «Building workflows with Taverna workbench» December 5-6, 2013, Manchester, UK Description of the workshop and registration<http://frb.eole-emailing.net/l.php?q=C7R0bdUyZhX7O4KA8AcP&l=qx%2B%2F%2F2hFK…> Note that these training workshops are free to attend but registration is required. The number of participants is limited. For further information, please write contact(a)biovel.eu<mailto:contact@biovel.eu>. More information on BioVeL: www.biovel.eu<http://frb.eole-emailing.net/l.php?q=C7R0bdUyZhX7O4KA8AcP&l=ai9CNhKZGxdfg76…> BioVeL is funded by the European Commission 7th Framework Programme (FP7) as part of its e-Infrastructures activity (Grant no. 283359).

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Biodiversity Specimen Label Transcription Hackathon, applications due Nov 1
by Austin Mast 25 Oct '13

25 Oct '13

iDigBio (www.idigbio.org) and Zooniverse's Notes from Nature Project (www.notesfromnature.org) are pleased to announce a hackathon to further enable public participation in online transcription of biodiversity specimen labels. There are approximately 1 billion specimens of this type in US collections alone, but it is estimated that information from just 10% of them is currently digitized and online. Digitization of natural history collections grants researchers access to vast quantities of information in their investigations of timely subjects such as climate change, invasive species, and the extinction crisis. The magnitude of the task of bringing those collections into digital format exceeds that of any single organization and will require new, Internet-scale approaches to engage the public. This is an exciting opportunity to work on a ground-breaking citizen-science endeavor with immediate and strong impacts in the areas of biodiversity research and applied conservation. The event will occur from December 16-20, 2013, at iDigBio in Gainesville, FL. There is up to $1200 for support of travel and lodging for each participant. The hackathon will produce new functionality and interoperability for Zooniverse's Notes from Nature (www.notesfromnature.org) and similar transcription tools. There are four areas of development that will be progressively addressed throughout the week. On Monday, the focus will be (1) linking images registered to the iDigBio Cloud to transcription tools to create efficiency and alleviate storage issues. Starting on Tuesday, topics will include (2) transcription QA/QC and the reconciliation of replicate transcriptions, (3) integration of OCR into the transcription workflow, and (4) new UI features and novel incentive approaches for public engagement. We expect that most participants will arrive on Monday afternoon and depart on Friday late afternoon/evening or Saturday morning. There will be a social at the Florida Museum of Natural History on Wednesday, December 18. There will be opportunities to narrow the focus in each category of activity in a teleconference tentatively scheduled for early in the week of November 25. **If you wish to be considered for one of about ten open invitations (of a total of about 30), please send (1) your CV/resume, (2) a short description (<250 words) of your relevant expertise (citing example products where appropriate), (3) the development areas that interest you (of the four numbered above), and (4) the days that you can attend to Austin Mast (amast(a)bio.fsu.edu) by Friday, November 1, for assured consideration. At least 3 slots will be reserved for qualified graduate students.** With best regards, Austin and Rob Guralnick (UC-Boulder), co-organizers Austin Mast ____________________________________ Associate Professor · Director, Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium · Associate Editor, Systematic Biology and Systematic Botany · Treasurer, American Society of Plant Taxonomists · Steering Committee Member, iDigBio, The National Resource for Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections Department of Biological Science · 319 Stadium Drive · Florida State University · Tallahassee, FL 32306-4295 · U.S.A. Office is King Life Science Building, room 4065 · Lab is King Life Science Building, rooms 4068 and 4084 · Herbarium is Biological Science Unit One, room 100 Voice: 1 (850) 645-1500 · Fax: 1 (850) 645-8447 · amast(a)bio.fsu.edu ____________________________________

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Final Invitation - NISO/DCMI Webinar: Metadata for Public Sector Administration
by DCMI Announce 22 Oct '13

22 Oct '13

***Please excuse the cross-posting*** =============================================================== NISO/DCMI Webinar: Metadata for Public Sector Administration PRESENTER: Makx Dekkers & Stijn Goedertier DATE: October 30, 2013 TIME: 1:00pm - 2:30pm Eastern (17:00-18:30 UTC) World Clock: http://bit.ly/19EvBJe INFORMATION & REGISTRATION: http://www.niso.org/news/events/2013/dcmi/publicsector/ =============================================================== ABOUT THE WEBINAR: One key challenge for e-Government programs around the world has been the lack of easily accessible information about the metadata schemas, controlled vocabularies, code lists, and other reference data that provide interoperability among a broad diversity of data sources. The Asset Description Metadata Schema [1] was developed for exchanging information about such "interoperability assets". The schema was developed with support from the European Commission with the objective of facilitating interoperability across eGovernment programmes in Europe, but it is already proving its usefulness in a wider context, for example to describe specifications maintained by DCMI and W3C. One key implementation of ADMS is in a federation of semantic asset repositories on the Joinup server [2]. Libraries that collect government information will benefit if such information is based on a set of commonly used schemas, vocabularies and code lists, making it easier to aggregate information from multiple sources. This webinar introduces the ADMS schema and discusses examples of its implementation. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS: Makx Dekkers has been the editor in the development and consensus process for ADMS. He is an independent information professional who has been working in areas of information management, metadata and interoperability for more than three decades. After a career start in library and information networking and international cooperation, he became the Managing Director at DCMI in 2001, a position he held until 2011. Since then, he has been involved with projects concerning interoperability in the areas of Open Government Data and Public Sector information. Stijn Goedertier, has been working since 2010 as a contractor for the Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administration (ISA) Programme of the European Commission. His interests include digital public services, administrative processes, and semantic interoperability. Since 2011, he has been closely involved in the development and promotion of the e-Government Core Vocabularies and Asset Description Metadata Schema (ADMS) together with public administrations and standardisation organisations in Europe. In that context, Stijn was also responsible for the design and operation of the federation of semantic asset repositories on Joinup [2]. Stijn is also a manager at PwC Technology Consulting where he focuses on Information Management. He has a Master degree in Business Engineering and a PhD in Process Mining. REGISTRATION: Registration is per site (access for one computer) and closes at 12:00 pm Eastern (16:00 UTC) on October 30, 2013. Discounts are available for NISO and DCMI members and students. For more information and to register, visit the event webpage: http://www.niso.org/news/events/2013/dcmi/publicsector/ =============================================================== [1] https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/asset/adms/release/100 [2] https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/catalogue/repository

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NISO/DCMI Webinar: Metadata for Public Sector Administration
by DCMI Announce 02 Oct '13

02 Oct '13

***Please excuse the cross-posting*** =============================================================== NISO/DCMI Webinar: Metadata for Public Sector Administration PRESENTER: Makx Dekkers & Stijn Goedertier DATE: October 30, 2013 TIME: 1:00pm - 2:30pm Eastern (17:00-18:30 UTC) World Clock: http://bit.ly/19EvBJe INFORMATION & REGISTRATION: http://www.niso.org/news/events/2013/dcmi/publicsector/ =============================================================== ABOUT THE WEBINAR: One key challenge for e-Government programs around the world has been the lack of easily accessible information about the metadata schemas, controlled vocabularies, code lists, and other reference data that provide interoperability among a broad diversity of data sources. The Asset Description Metadata Schema [1] was developed for exchanging information about such "interoperability assets". The schema was developed with support from the European Commission with the objective of facilitating interoperability across eGovernment programmes in Europe, but it is already proving its usefulness in a wider context, for example to describe specifications maintained by DCMI and W3C. One key implementation of ADMS is in a federation of semantic asset repositories on the Joinup server [2]. Libraries that collect government information will benefit if such information is based on a set of commonly used schemas, vocabularies and code lists, making it easier to aggregate information from multiple sources. This webinar introduces the ADMS schema and discusses examples of its implementation. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS: Makx Dekkers has been the editor in the development and consensus process for ADMS. He is an independent information professional who has been working in areas of information management, metadata and interoperability for more than three decades. After a career start in library and information networking and international cooperation, he became the Managing Director at DCMI in 2001, a position he held until 2011. Since then, he has been involved with projects concerning interoperability in the areas of Open Government Data and Public Sector information. Stijn Goedertier, Manager at PriceWaterhouseCoopers Belgium, is a key participant in the ADMS project. REGISTRATION: Registration is per site (access for one computer) and closes at 12:00 pm Eastern (16:00 UTC) on October 30, 2013. Discounts are available for NISO and DCMI members and students. For more information and to register, visit the event webpage: http://www.niso.org/news/events/2013/dcmi/publicsector/ =============================================================== [1] https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/asset/adms/release/100 [2] https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/catalogue/repository

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