[Taxacom] What can Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) do for you?

Sun Oct 20 14:54:18 CDT 2013

I never understood, why it is so difficult to find species or provider information on GBIF. This SHOULD be the most visible link, not all the stories about GBIF. It should be the first button people press, either deliberately of by chance.

Donat

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Roderic Page
Sent: Sunday, October 20, 2013 9:47 PM
To: Mary Barkworth
Cc: Taxa com
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] What can Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) do for you?

Hi Mary,

For reasons which surpass understanding, the search box you see on the GBIF home page, and on other pages to the right of the "About" menu is a search of the site's web pages, NOT the database itself. So, if you search for "Artemisia" you get nothing. You have to go to http://www.gbif.org/species to get the results you expect.

Thanks for the other comments, the theme of additional sources of data keeps coming up.

Regards

Rod

On 20 Oct 2013, at 14:15, Mary Barkworth wrote:

> 1) This new interface seems to target developers more than the 
> programming illiterate (pill). It extolls the web apps available, show 
> how data can be visualized, but the search our data button has gone. I 
> am pill. I tried searching for Artemisia and was told no records. 
> Obviously I am missing something. I tried the "Explore Occurrences" 
> button, realizing I might be getting reports rather than specimen data 
> and was told "no records". Pretty pictures of the development of 
> GBIF's records - yes, I would like that app - but I could not see 
> where to enter in MY search. So, please make that more evident. I am 
> sure it is simple, it out to be blazingly simple. I know I am old but 
> I am sure there are a lot more pills out there who would like to be 
> able to use the records even if only to get an overview of its 
> distribution, recognizing that the data are coming through few 
> institutions. Nothing against apps; I liked the new data visualization 
> tool. I would just like a) to be able to se
 lect which data in GBIF I visualize and b) enable application of the app to non-gbif data sets such as the herbarium networks developing in the US or a download from other sources (yes, this will have to involve non-pills).
> 2) Getting data from the dark parts of the world. GBIF unfortunately 
> has to work through governments. There are a lot of excellent people 
> in government agencies but, for diversity data, the important people 
> are those that obtain the data and those that curate the specimens, 
> sounds, images, DNA, etc. You want good data going forward - then find 
> ways to reach those people. Many of the dark places have unreliable 
> electricity and little or no internet access (if it is very expensive, 
> it comes in the 'little or no" category) - let alone facilities for 
> storing evidence. And that is when there is no conflict in the area. I 
> do not have magic answers but do know that, even in the US, what is 
> making possible rapid expansion to the number of herbaria making data 
> available are networks that encourage participation by all and make 
> that participation easy - nowadays requiring only a browser once one 
> accepts that a specimen image is not essential (possibly useful but 
> not essential). Of co
 urse, browser based approaches require infrastructure so that aspect of the approach is not going to work everywhere. What is true is that a) providing records needs to offer something to those from whom one wants the data - not just money (but money is essential) but also assistance in learning how to use what they are making available to advance their career and organization. This I way beyond the remit of GBIF - but necessary if we want more good records. 
> 3)  And I agree with Lyubomir, enabling use of the information inside formal publications would be really valuable. We need more journals with the ability to mark up manuscripts and that means providing the software and helping those in charge (and their contributors) learn to use it. Is there any open source software available for this purpose? One approach, that used by Pensoft I think, is to enable development on an interface that provides the markup - just as word processing tools make it easy to mark up things to be in a different typeface of even to be indexed - but only one index (so far as I am aware).  
> 
> Mary
> 
> 
> 
> 
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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

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

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(2) a Google search specified as:  site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here

Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.