Developing a cyberinfrastructure: Experiences from a regional network of plant taxonomists

1. Developing a cyberinfrastructure: Experiences from a regional network of plant taxonomists Zack Murrell, Derick Poindexter, and Michael Denslow Appalachian State University murrellze@appstate.edu SERNEC.ORG

2. SERNEC: SouthEast Regional Network of Expertise and Collections A National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network RCN Award # 0542320 FIVE YEAR PROJECT TO BUILD A REGIONAL BIOINFORMATICS RESEARCH TOOL

3. SERNEC: SouthEast Regional Network of Expertise and Collections 215+ herbaria in the regionColleges UniversitiesState and federal parksPrivate collections SERNEC

4. Goals • Network the 215 herbaria in 15 states in southeastern North America • Develop a strategy for advancing each state’s ongoing databasing effort • Publish online botanical resources that will be available to scientists, land managers, state and federal agencies, educators and the general public murrellze@appstate.edu SERNEC.ORG

5. State of Herbaria in the Southeast USA • Collections vary in size from 3,000 to 750,000 specimens. • Curators are taxonomists, ecologists, paleobotanists, population biologists. • Some institutions with significant budgets, IT support and curatorial staff. • Some institutions are single person operations without budgets or IT support. • ESTIMATED 15 MILLION SPECIMENS FROM THE SOUTHEAST. “Highest fruit on the tree” or “Least Common Denominator” Data derived from Index Herbariorum (http://www.nybg.org/bsci/ih/ih.html) .

6. http://www.sernec.org/

7. MOBILIZATION AND COMMUNICATION WORKING GROUPS: • IT and infrastructure - Facebook • Libraries and literature - LinkedIN • Images (specimen and live) - Drupal • Education and outreach -Drupal • Taxonomic concept mapping - Drupal • State working groups - NING and listserv “IT TAKES A VILLAGE” murrellze@appstate.edu SERNEC.ORG

8. http://www.herbarium.unc.edu/seflora/firstviewer.htm

9. SERNEC Partners • US Geological Survey NBII/SAIN • SunSITE – Univ. of Tennessee-Knoxville Implementation of emerging and advanced technologies and applications. • University of North Carolina and the Interdisciplinary Geospatial Research Center, Univ. Tenn-Chattanooga Dynamic mapping of Southeast collections • Robert Sandusky - University of Chicago E-Research: The Contexts, Processes, and Social Order of Distributed Collective Practice • Developing collaborations with HERBIS, MORPHBANK and FILTERPUSH

10. Annotation GIS mapping Notify of Annotation Concept mapping Portal- individual herbarium Public Educators K-12 Corporate users Decision-makers Curators scientists Annotation Data transfer Herbarium w/out Server Automated-data provided SERNEC Community Curators Scientists Educators Artists SunSITE SERNEC Federated Database Automated SERNEC-NBII portal digitize clean Data storage/curation Automated-Data provided Herbarium w/ Server Data transfer Experts View Data (LOGIN and annotate) Portal- individual herbarium Annotation MORPHBANK Notify of Annotation Mirrored data storage/curation Virtual workbench SHC portal w/ herbarium Tools Annotation

11. Using the Society of Herbarium Curators for governance structure State consortia Regional Chapter Decision-making Consensus building Conflict resolution Utilize existing organization’s constitution structure http://www.societyofherbariumcurators.org/

12. Community tool development: “Idiot’s guides” Compiling listserv threads Seeking contributions

13. Networks and collaborations on this scale do not develop overnight The potential success of this network is rooted in the significant contributions made by biologists in the region over the past century that provide a solid foundation for this effort. Meeting annually for the past 60 years. The Association of Southeastern Biologists (ASB) The Southern Appalachian Botanical Society (SABS) How can we identify “natural” groups? Associations and journals, annual gatherings, taxon based societies.

14. Expand domain network to all-taxa regional network Biodiversity Informatics: Progress and Potential in the Southeastern USA http://www.asb.appstate.edu/ Initiative to develop an all-taxa database of collections in the Southeastern USA Symposium April 4, 2009 Birmingham, Alabama Sponsored by: CollectionsWeb (NSF RCN) SERNEC (NSF RCN)

15. Great Lakes Northern Great Plains Pacific Northwest New England California Consortium of Herbaria SERNEC CIRH Arizona & New Mexico TORCH Central Great Plains Developing Herbarium Networks Modified from: www.theodora.com/maps

16. United States Virtual Herbarium (USVH) • Will use regional networks for organizational structure • Support from National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII)

17. What can networks do? • Drive change in behavior by accepting best practices (mark-up new descriptions at time of publication). • Develop high quality data through analysis and annotations. • Assemble species pages and interactive keys. • Provide information on phylogenetics and phyloinformatics. • Identify gray literature/scan literature. • Provide expertise for concept mapping (to literature and use).

18. How can we mobilize social networks? • Support typical workflow (layman’s guide to technical jargon). • Develop education modules for bioinformatics (for both curators and students). • Provide training modules for literature mark-up. • Collaborate on development of standards within taxonomic groups.

19. { Evangelical model Domain Scientists Computer Scientists Informaticists “US” TDWG DS/CS/Inf Regional Network Domain Network DS/CS/Inf DS/CS/Inf DS/CS/Inf DS/CS/Inf DS/CS/Inf DS/CS/Inf Herb Network Museum Network Herb Network Herb Network

20. SERNEC SouthEast Regional Network of Expertise and Collectionswww.sernec.org SERNEC