[Taxacom] Whitepaper consultation on Biodiversity Informatics

Fri Mar 30 07:59:00 CDT 2012

Thanks, Rod,

for the great comment on the focus should be on "questions," not 
technologies.

BUT I would add the basic focus should FIRST be on content. The information 
that can be used to answer questions.

In the half century, I have been in the "biodiversity" business, what has 
been the clear trend is the continued re-invention of the "infrastructure 
technologies," investing big bucks in "new and better" software, etc., but 
virtually nothing on content. The old "taxonomy is free" paradigm. People 
have questions, they want answer, so the critical component is content, the 
information necessary to answer those question. Not so new technology to 
simply re-scuffle the old information.

We run the Systema Dipterorum (see us at www.diptera.org), an online 
nomenclator and species database for more than 10% of the known 
biodiversity, flies (Insecta: Diptera), which are critical as they have one 
of this highest impact on human society, as disease vectors, pollinators, 
crop pests, biological control agents, model organisms (Drosophila), 
forensics indicators, etc. We provide basic information on more than 160,000 
species and a quarter of million names, with simple obsolete software 
(FileMakerPro version 6), but as we have a budget of only some 50K per year 
we focus on content, trying to keep up with the thousands of new species 
being added annually, etc. And enhancement of our basic content.

What we need is support to improve our content, to enhance it, to have it 
"peer-reviewed," etc. No some new software to simply re-format it.

Oh, well ...

back to the data ...

Sincerely,

Chris

see us at www.diptera.org

-----Original Message----- 
From: Roderic Page
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2012 3:43 AM
To: Dave Roberts
Cc: Norman Morrison ; Peter van Tienderen ; Hannu Saarenmaa ; Alex Hardisty 
; tdwg at lists.tdwg.org ; taxacom
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Whitepaper consultation on Biodiversity Informatics

Dear Dave,

This sounds like a great opportunity.

That said, I little part of me dies when I read "infrastructure" documents. 
The focus is invariably on technologies rather than questions, and I don't 
think people actually want "infrastructure", they want things to help them 
do the things they're trying to do (as opposed to cool things that could be 
built for them).

I've made some comments on the topics, but rather than pollute your own 
outline with my grumpiness, I've made a copy and scribbled some thoughts on 
that. The annotated document is at 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VLvysjbm6IUhceAEgkAWSQ9yc71YK-9_48bPNZACZPo/edit 
or http://bit.ly/H17nLs if that link gets mangled.

Regards

Rod

On 29 Mar 2012, at 12:31, Dave Roberts wrote:

> Dear Colleague,
>
> we need funding to pursue biodiversity research, but funding is under huge 
> pressure.  One area for which there is potential is in biodiversity 
> informatics because we are witnessing a paradigm shift in the way we 
> handle data. Now it is expected that data will be openly accessible, 
> presenting huge opportunities if only the data can be found when needed.
>
> There is a strong need for a community voice to present the funders with a 
> set of priorities.  We have successfully built a number of infrastructural 
> components, such as INSDC, GBIF, Catalogue of Life, but we lack the 
> bridges to allow users to integrate elements from these resources to 
> address a simple question.
>
> With the encouragement of the European Commission, we are launching a 
> consultation to write a White Paper on biodiversity informatics.  We have 
> made a list of potential chapters with a brief outline of what they might 
> cover here:
>
> http://is.gd/WhitePaperChapters
>
> This document is a public Google doc. The approach we propose is to ask 
> for volunteers to lead the development of each chapter.
>
> * If you can identify a new chapter, please add it to the Chapters list
>
> * If you are prepared to lead a chapter, put your name against the 
> chapter, open a new public googledoc and past the link into the chapters 
> list.
>
> * Please do not create chapters dedicated to specific disciplines, such as 
> molecular biology, because there is no way to prioritise one discipline 
> against another.
>
> * Three funded EU projects will administer the production of the white 
> paper.  agINFRA, BioVeL and ViBRANT will supply. We will edit the chapters 
> for continuity and will produce an executive summary.
>
> * If you are able to join the editorial group, email one of the 
> organisers.  We expect this to work by self-nomination.
>
> The European Commission would like access to such a community view in 
> forming the funding calls under Horizon2020.  It is possible that other 
> funders may pay similar attention.  It makes no sense to do this over just 
> Europe.  We recognise that biodiversity is global and we need global 
> priorities.
>
> Timetable
> 27 April: initial draft chapters; propose group meetings with dates in May
>
> 1 June: refined chapters merged by editorial group
>
> 22 June: draft executive summary and edited chapters
>
> July: public meeting
>
> 1st Sept: Publication of white paper
>
> This timetable is tight because the Horizon2020 funding calls will be 
> drafted in the last quarter of 2012.  To have real benefit in Europe, we 
> need to move quickly.
>
> Organising Group:
> Alex Hardisty <hardistyAR_at_cardiff_dot_ac_dot_uk>
> Dave Roberts <dmr_at_nomencurator_dot_org>
> Hannu Saarenmaa <hannu_dot_saarenmaa_at_uef_dot_fi>
> Norman Morrison <norman_at_nmorrison_dot_info>
> Peter van Tienderen <P_dot_H_dot_vanTienderen_at_uva_dot_nl>
> -- 
> Dr D.McL. Roberts,        Tel: +44 (0)20 7942 5086
> Dept. Zoology,
> The Natural History Museum,
> Cromwell Road,
> London        SW7 5BD
> Great Britain             Email: dmr at nomencurator.org
> Web page:
> http://scratchpads.eu
> http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/projects/euk-extreme/
> --
> "The intent of [bureaucratic] language is not to deceive, it is to 
> preserve one's interpretive latitude so that if context changes a new more 
> approporiate meaning can be attached to the language already used." 
> Matthew Crawford (The case for working with your hands, Penguin 2010)
> --
>
>
>
>
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---------------------------------------------------------
Roderic Page
Professor of Taxonomy
Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine
College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences
Graham Kerr Building
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK

Email: r.page at bio.gla.ac.uk
Tel: +44 141 330 4778
Fax: +44 141 330 2792
Skype: rdmpage
AIM: rodpage1962 at aim.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1112517192
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Blog: http://iphylo.blogspot.com
Home page: http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/rod.html

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