EDIT WP5 Platform for Cybertaxonomy

The EDIT Biodiversity Service & Application Tracker (BDTracker) is now available online www.bdtracker.net

Component C5.47 gives an idea of the large number of taxonomic descriptive tools available on internet. Most of the time, these applications are very useful for a large public but don't provide enough specificities to be include as components of an IT cybertaxonomic platform. The component includes a short list of selected tools to be tested in the context of EDIT.
To download the component please click here

WP5.4 (MNHN) met with Kevin Thiele (Western Australian Herbarium) to discuss IdentifyLife and Lucid, a programme designed to manage descriptive data for identification.

In the context of EDIT, WP5.6 will start testing a range of descriptive programmes (e.g. Delta-Access, Delta-Intkey, EFG2, IKBS, Linnaeus II, Lucid, Navikey, Xper2 etc.) as well as having at least two knowledge databases that are accessible on these different systems. It appears that CSV files could be a possible way to exchange data between Lucid and Xper2 (i.e. SDD schema would be preferable in the future). WP5.6 results will appear on the WP5 blog.

Component C5.3.1 provides an overview of existing Digital Library activity, taking into account established principles and standards in the field. It examines practices and standards related to the accompanying software specification and other deliverables for work package 5.3. of the EDIT project.

As of March 2007, 14 models have been produced from interview, eight of which have been reviewed and posted on the EDIT wiki. The interviews have been targeted towards the criteria for selecting candidates, as agreed at the modeller’s meeting in Berlin during September 2006. These were; geographical coverage, taxonomic group (2 interviews each), environment of taxonomic groups, techniques used, and size of organisation.
Details of these criteria appear in appendix 1. So far, progress is as follows:

From 23 to 24 May 2007, Lutz Suhrbier will attend the International Workshop on Virtual Research Environments and Collaborative Work Environments at the e-Science Institute in Edinburgh (UK).

• Activity: A working group within the workpackage that is responsible for a series of operations (tasks) listed in the workplan (description of work). Each activity has an Activity Leader and a list of Components & Milestones. See also the Deliverables page.
• Component: A software application (desktop or web based) for human users or a (web) service.

This is just to let the community know that I have been asked by Jane Smith to prepare the Requirements Document for the European Virtual Library of Taxonomic Literature (E-ViTL). My aim is finish the report by 6th June. It should then provide a set of criteria, related to user requirements and technical specifications, that will allow tendering for a system to take place.

I am currently in the process of capturing user requirements. Following brainstorming with fellow scientists at NHML, and attendance at the recent WP6 Meeting, I have set up an online questionnaire, which everyone in the EDIT Community is invited to participate - so tell your friends and colleagues! I shall also extend the invitation via the TAXACOM and TDWG listservers.

The survey can be found at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?A=193016818E830

I shall run the survey until Friday 11th May and shall then start writing the requirements report.

In addition to the questionnaire there is also a debate starting on the WP6 Web Revisions Forum, which you are invited to contribute to: http://www.editwebrevisions.info/forum/17. Alternatively you can always e-mail your thoughts and comments to me : c.hussey (at) nhm.ac.uk.
NOTE: E-ViTL is likely to be a resource discovery tool rather than a repository of full text articles. It could, however, point users to repositories, such as the Biodiversity Heritage Library (http://bhl.si.edu/), online journals and other sources.

There is some debate over whether E-ViTL should attempt to provide reference management functions, in addition to providing access to literature. Also, whether it should be a repository for reference lists, rather than a portal to search distributed repositories. However, the purpose of this survey is to gather user requirements and, although it is unlikely that E-ViTL will be able to incorporate all possible requirements, your views will provide a useful pointer for future development.

Thank you all for your interest.

Charles Hussey

Partners of WP5.2 and WP5.4 (Geospatial Components of the Cybertaxonomy platform) will organise a workshop at the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium (May 14 to 16 2007). The two first days of the meeting will be a working session of the involved GIS specialists to coordinate the activities, review the current achievements and check the interoperability of the products. On the 16th it is planned to have invited speakers reporting about the Field Module of the Recorder Software, considered to be used for the EDIT Cybertaxonomy Platform to manage ATBI (All Taxa Biodiversity Inventories) information.

Draft Agenda

How to access Museum and Hotel

Bus 830 Airport - Tervuren

Walter Berendsohn gave a clarifying presentation about the aims of WP5 in Berlin during a meeting of WP5+WP6. The presentation is an introduction to the Internet Platform for Cybertaxonomy, the overall aims of a European Network of Excellence project and the relations of WP5 with WP6 and CATE.