[Taxacom] GBIF progress

Mon Feb 2 02:30:33 CST 2009

Dear Wolfgang,

We see a key role for GBIF mediated data in supporting reporting obligations
at both national and international levels. This requires a sufficient
quantity and quality of data in terms of taxonomic, geospatial and temporal
coverage that is readily discoverable and accessible on the network. The
GBIF Work Programme for 2009-2010
(http://www2.gbif.org/PosterWPA0low-res.pdf) seeks to address this and is
founded on development of a metadata catalogue system that documents
biodiversity resources, whether digitised or not. This is being developed as
part of the GBIF Global Biodiversity Resources Discovery System (GBRDS)
(http://www2.gbif.org/PosterGBRDSA0low-res.pdf) and also includes just such
a plan as you allude to, to develop an infrastructure for demand driven
mobilisation of data through the Global Strategy and Action Plan for the
Digitisation of Natural History Collections
(http://www2.gbif.org/GSAP_NHC.pdf). 

GBIF, is about to appoint a special metadata task group to provide
implementation guidelines for the metadata system, building on the
recommendations in the general strategy document that was developed last
year
(http://wiki.gbif.org/dadiwiki/wikka.php?wakka=FilesUpload/files.xml&action=
download&file=GBIF-metadata-strategy_v.06.pdf).

We welcome input from all those interested in seeing such a biodiversity
resource discovery system implemented.

With regards,

Éamonn

_______________________________________________
Éamonn Ó Tuama, Ph.D. (eotuama at gbif.org), 
Senior Programme Officer, Inventory, Discovery, Access (IDA), 
Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat, 
Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, DENMARK 
Phone:  +45 3532 1494; Fax:  +45 3532 1480

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] Im Auftrag von faunaplan at aol.com
Gesendet: Montag, 5. Januar 2009 13:40
An: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Betreff: [Taxacom] GBIF progress

Dear All,
in these days and weeks many colleagues will be busy with preparing the 4th
(last!) National Reports for the Convention on Biological Diversity and for
sure the question will come up again: cannot we accelerate the process of
unlocking vital information hiding in natural history collections and other
resources? 
I'd say Yes we can!

In the beginning of last year, GBIF had the target of reaching one billion
records by the end of 2008. They didn't reach by far, but now there may be a
good moment to think about additional strategies. In fact, the discussion
started by GBIF does sound convincing and realistic to me: Development of an
infrastructure for demand-driven mobilisation of data!

We just know there are plenty of unmobilised data out there but don't know
where. So, what basically seems to be needed is a sort of Index to data that
are not yet digitized or not yet open-access. 
Resources that should be indexed include literature, collections, online
resources, etc. - as well as active field researchers, naturalists, etc. who
can be recruited for ad-hoc data collection.

>From my point of view, an index should have as basic elements:
A standardised (fit-for-use) electronic catalogue of names with focus on
species' level names, and an easy-to-use global grid so that all geospatial
information can be stored and retrieved in handy units, - e.g., simple
lat/lon-cells like in systems used by some air patrols (simply coded, e.g.
'NE47011a' for the upper left quarter of the one-degree cell between 47B
0-48°N/ 11°-12°E. Such cells can be displayed by exactly one pixel point in
the global overview map used by GBIF).

Best wishes,
Wolfgang
---------------------------

Wolfgang Lorenz, Tutzing, Germany

________________________________________________________________________
AOL eMail auf Ihrem Handy! Ab sofort können Sie auch unterwegs Ihre AOL
email abrufen. Registrieren Sie sich jetzt kostenlos.
_______________________________________________

Taxacom Mailing List

Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu

http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom

The entire Taxacom Archive back to 1992 can be searched with either of these
methods:

http://taxacom.markmail.org

Or use a Google search specified as:
site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here