[Taxacom] Whitepaper consultation on Biodiversity Informatics

Fri Mar 30 08:06:44 CDT 2012

I have been told by Google that I cannot comment on the document, so
apologies Rod, I'll put my thoughts here.

imho, it would be appropriate to have one or more chapters from those who
are being offered the snake oil, rather than just have the pitches from the
snake oil salespersons

But, the issue in here is how big is the edge.  By this I mean that it is
one task to demonstrate proof of concept with purpose-ready elements, but
unless we can build solid rapid and global services, we will not be there
yet.  In discussions about this, critics have been themselves criticized
for condemning the potential with a 'few' difficult edge cases.  If the
edge cases are few and far between, then we are indeed in a good place.
 But if a large part of biology remains inaccessible to 'modern
management', then we should be toning down our sales pitch.

As for Names, I have now added a dot point to the page on that chapter to
specify that it needs to address the things without 'names' in the
conventional sense  - i.e. to broaden the issue of names to any identifying
'flag'.

Paddy

On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 3:43 AM, Roderic Page <r.page at bio.gla.ac.uk> wrote:

> 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/editor
> 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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> >
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> >
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> >
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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
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/rdmpage
> Blog: http://iphylo.blogspot.com
> Home page: http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/rod.html
>
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>
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>
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>

-- 
___________________________________
David J Patterson

Senior Scientist, Marine Biological Laboratory
Life Sciences Lead, Data Conservancy
globalnames.org

7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MASS 02543, USA.