Future of CSIRO DELTA programs

[Mike Dallwitz]

CSIRO Entomology has supported the development of DELTA and associated
programs for some 25 years, and believes they are valued research and
communication tools. CSIRO is committed to biological informatics and is
keen to see the programs continue to be of value to the scientific community
and other users of taxonomic information. However, it has been decided that,
based on relative priorities, the maturity of the project, and available
resources, CSIRO cannot continue to fund the development of these programs
from its core resources.

Program development and user support will continue until the end of this
year. A new version of Intkey, with a substantially improved interface, will
be released in June. A completely self-contained version of the DELTA
Editor, incorporating the functions of Confor and Intimate, will be released
in December, making Confor and Intimate obsolete. During this year we will
improve the marketing of DELTA and also expect to offer enhanced support to
users, including training and dedicated support to major users.

It is hoped that alternative support for DELTA will be in place before the
end of the year. CSIRO will explore ways for continued support and
development of the programs, either by CSIRO or by other institutions. Your
assistance in securing their continued availability would be greatly
appreciated and we would welcome your ideas or expressions of interest in
the future development and support of the programs.


R. Floyd
Program Leader
Natural Resources and Biodiversity
CSIRO Entomology

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Communicated by Mike Dallwitz

CSIRO Entomology, GPO Box 1700, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
Phone: +61 2 6246 4075   Fax: +61 2 6246 4000
Email: md at ento.csiro.au  Internet: biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/