[Taxacom] Invitation: RDA - Biodiversity Data Integration sessions

[Dimitris Koureas]

This is an invitation to contribute to the RDA plenary meeting in Amsterdam and the Biodiversity Data Integration Interest Group. 

Dear all, 
(Apologies for any cross-posting)

The Biodiversity Data Integration Group is a recognised & endorsed Interest Group (BDI IG) within the RDA structure (http://rd-alliance.org). We feel that this group presents a unique opportunity to act as a focal point for the biodiversity informatics community and complement existing initiatives (TDWG, COST Actions, RCNs) but also liaise with adjacent communities to jointly identify technical and socio-cultural issues related to the efficient mobilisation, identification and preservation of biodiversity data. 

The IG is at pivotal point where we need to identify its exact role within the RDA infrastructure as well as its usefulness within the wider biodiversity informatics landscape. 
One of the main points of criticism for the entire RDA structure is the redundancy observed across the activities of WG and IGs. Given this challenge, the Biodiversity Data IG will need to identify areas that cross-cut the work of other RDA IGs and tackle unique challenges but with significant impact beyond the domain.
 
The BDI IG has secured two breakout sessions to run (one at the beginning of the plenary Monday 22 Sept 2014, 11.00 - 12.30 and one at the end Wednesday 24 Sept 2014, 9.00 - 10.30). 

Our overarching goals for this RDA plenary are to:
1. Identify areas of activities within the RDA and wider biodiversity informatics landscape
2. Monitor work done under relevant IGs and report back to the second session
3. Propose the formulation of at least one RDA Working Group (WG) to address specific challenges

We invite you to give a high-level presentation summarising the critical issues on the following points in the agenda and suggest course of actions. 

Presentations should be no longer than 10 minutes. We expect to have at least one presentation for each of the issues below, giving us time for discussion on each one.

- Identification of topics related to the RDA Biodiversity IG, which could contribute to the sharing of best practices and innovations across disciplines and the definition of "building blocks" of common global data infrastructures. Discussion of associated tasks and participations of BDI IG members at the fourth plenary meeting.

- Identification of cross-cutting activity areas and collaborations with intersecting domain specific RDA IGs/WGs, like the Marine Data Harmonisation IG, CODATA IG on Legal Interoperability WG, Agricultural Data Interoperability IG, Wheat data Interoperability WG.

- Identification of cross-cutting activity areas and collaborations with intersecting technical specific RDA IGs/WGs, like the Research Data Provenance IG, Persistent Identifiers IG, Big Data Analytics IG, Rescuing Heritage Data, Publishing Data IG, Data Foundation and Terminology WG.

- Identification of potential RDA BDI 'Working Groups' to accelerate the progress in a concrete way with the overarching goal of increasing data-driven innovations, like a next generation of name resolution services, sophisticated vocabulary services and advanced routines for data annotation.

- Identification of relevant best practice issues, like the standardisation and integration of web services for e-Science application (VREs, e-Labs), a roadmap on further optimising linked open-data research, and the optimisation of text mining routines for data discovery

You can see the agenda of the two breakout sessions at
https://rd-alliance.org/biodiversity-data-integration-ig.html-0

Even if you do not intend to attend the meeting in Amsterdam we invite you to join the RDA BDI IG. To do so please register at http://rd-alliance.org and join the group at https://rd-alliance.org/group/biodiversity-data-integration-ig.html 

Please reply to d.koureas at nhm.ac.uk by Sep 8 indicating your interest or if you'd like to propose specific changes to the Agenda prior to the meeting.

We look forward to seeing you in Amsterdam

On behalf of the IG chair, 
Kind regards,
Dimitris

--
Dr Dimitrios Koureas
Dept of Life Sciences | Biodiversity Informatics Group
The Natural History Museum London
SW7 5BD, UK