EDIT WP5 Platform for Cybertaxonomy

The implementation of a new electronic infrastructure for taxonomic data processing from the field to the printed publication should involve Users (Taxonomists) from the earliest possible stage of development. The EDIT Work Package 5 involved its User groups from the beginning by organising joint Developer/User-workshops, creating test-versions of important software components (e.g. data-portal, taxonomic editor), and publishing modelling decisions taken in the developers group on the relevant EDIT mailing lists.

In January 2008, the first Version of the Common Data Model (CDM) was frozen and documented at http://wp5.e-taxonomy.eu/cdm/v1/. This first version is based primarily on experiences using existing data models and formats. It attempts to cover all fields related to taxonomy, so that data coming from different applications can be stored and accessed via a single
database.

The Common Data Model (CDM) acts as the central “information broker” within EDIT’s platform for cybertaxonomy architecture. Apart from its role as an advanced storage facility for individual researcher and taxonomic communities it has to communicate with decoupled EDIT platform components such as data portals, (print) publication tools, fieldwork and mapping software, as well as collection databases and specimen information systems (see figure). Consequently, the implementation of CDM interfaces providing and accepting data according to established international biodiversity informatics data standards and quasi-standards is considered essential for the entire EDIT-based taxonomic information workflow.

For the continued development, testing and assessment of the EDIT Common Data Model (CDM) as well as its related software products (e.g. data portal, taxonomic editor, import/export modules) the availability of real-world taxonomic data sets is essential. In collaboration with WP6 and other taxonomic initiatives, WP5 has organized the availability of eight significant taxonomic datasets and tested their compliance with the CDM model:

Relying on recent experience acquired through the use of the model for descriptive data in CDM v1, we reviewed the existing Java classes. We propose some improvements to ensure an optimal handling of data, as well as compatibility with existing descriptive standards and tools. This report provides a summary of the comments made on the first version of the CDM descriptive data model and propositions of evolutions for an improved management of descriptive data in the CDM.

This report provides a summary of the procedures and steps to follow using converter webservices for transforming point occurrence data to distribution data.

Point data to regional distribution - Priorities in programming efforts should thus be concentrated on a set of known end-user needs in the domain of taxonomy related work, for practical purposes. Based on previously conducted surveys and reports following services have been selected as a priority to be used by taxonomists or users of taxonomic information:

On January 26th, a small rather informal meeting was held in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, back-to-back with the EDIT ATBI+M manual workshop.

This was a good opportunity, as the lead developer for the CSIC mapViewer tool (Pere Roca Ristol) was there, and Anke Hoffmann for the management part. The partners not physically present have largely contributed via the (geo and dev) mailing lists, and their comments and suggestions were taken into account for the workplan and the outcomes of the workshop.

ViTaL, the Virtual Taxonomic Library is a component of the EDIT infrastructure, being created as part of WP5.3, which is concerned with the provision of Bibliographic tools for the taxonomic community. The services provided by ViTaL have been discussed in detail in previously published project documents. This report documents the completion of the milestone: M5.25 - Journal subscription information provided to the ViTaL team (NHML) by the initial set of actively collaborating institutions.

The general objective of the activity covers the design of a security infrastructure for the platform and the introduction of a secure Single Sign-On service (SSO) for the platform. The task to be achieved within the third JPA concerns the integration of a Community Single Sign-On (CSSO) security infrastructure within the platform.

This report provides an overview of possible test data for the EDIT Geoplatform tools, specifically the mapViewer tool. Examples are given in the Annexes to this report.