Welcome & Report from the TDWG executive meeting

1. Welcome &Report from the TDWG executive meeting (Sunday, Sept. 16, 2007)

2. 1. TDWG 2008 Perth, Australia Presentation in Business Meeting Dates: October 19-25 Please inform us of competing meetings

3. 2. Nominations for TDWG Officers • Chair, Treasurer, Regional Representatives • Now possible until end of coffee break this afternoon • Elections in business meeting (lunchtime tomorrow) • Nominations “Committee”: Greg Whitbread

4. 3. Finances Tip project successful • Congratulations to Lee, Ricardo and Roger! • Standards architecture • Webseite (Internet infrastructure) in place, documentation on-line • Notable increase in membership • But – how to continue?

5. 3. Finances How to continue? • Membership campaign – projects, institutions • Continue the core TDWG Infrastructure Project Membership asked to take or support decisions: • Spend 45.000 US$ over the next year to continue the core IP • Priorities on: membership campaign, keeping up the infrastructure, get dedicated in-kind support (examples: NHM, GBIF) • Increase institutional membership from $225 to 500 US$ (Individuals: 75$) • To be discussed at Business Meeting

6. 4. TDWG StandardsNew Series No. 1

7. TDWG Standards New Series No. 1 NO TIES X

8. Secretary

9. TDWG Infrastructure Project • Over the past year we • Completed 95% of the project milestones • Infrastructure complete (Typo3, OJS, Twiki, Mailman…) • Produced 89 documents, >20 web pages, 22 news items, 4 summaries, 2 videos, TDWG presentation and poster • Supported 26 projects (13 travel) with ~US$318,000 • Assisted on the Executive Committee • Ahead • Finalise strategy for ongoing support of TDWG • SysAdmin, LSID AS & installation guides, standards summaries, videos? • TDWG architecture outreach • Continue deployment of LSIDs • Details of Project outcomes during the conference

10. TNC Taxon Names & Concepts • Taxon Concept Schema ratified in 2005 • Clear separation of Nomenclature and Taxonomy • Progress understanding and take up of TCS approach • TNC task group being set up - TCS Usability. • Represented in RDF in LSID Vocabularies - not ratified • Other nomenclatural/taxonomic issues covered

11. Taxon Names & Concepts Try Marking and Exploring Concepts Yourself! Come along and help shape our tools for creating and exploring taxonomic concept data CREATE EXPLORE • Signup for a test session during the week. • See presentation Thursday afternoon. MARTIN GRAHAM*, PAUL CRAIG and JESSIE KENNEDY

12. Technical Architecture Group • Maintains technical compatibility between TDWG standards and those produced by other groups • Develops a common standards architecture • Over the last year - • The 2007 Roadmap is in your conference pack! • Next year - • Education, outreach, descriptive data, integration ...

13. TAPIR Task Group • Over the past year we • Released an Executive Summary • Released a Network Builders' Guide • Released two other TAPIR provider software: TapirLink (in PHP) and Tapir.Net • Enabled LSID resolution in all existing TAPIR providers • Made a few adjustments in the specification and XML Schema (spec. has a detailed change log) • Set up OAI-PMH service on top of TAPIR (Tapir.Net) • Created a cool promotional video • Ahead • There are many talks related to TAPIR all over the meeting • Finish a TAPIR provider monitoring tool (BigDig? BigTap?) • Planning to have standard approved by December 30

14. Progress Report of the Invasive Species Information Systems Interest Group Biodiversity Information Standards-Taxonomic Databases Working GroupAnnual Meeting: Bratislavia, Slovakia 17 September 2007 Annie Simpson, Convener Contact email: asimpson@usgs.gov

15. History • April 2004: GISIN was formed to provide a platform for sharing invasive species information at a global level • 2005: Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity funds creation of an Invasive Alien Species Profile Schema (IAS-PS) • August 2006: GISIN convened an interest group within TDWG

16. Recent Progress • Fall 2006 GBIF funds creation of a pilot system to cross search invasive species DBs • Winter 2006/7: Keystone Center runs invasive species needs assessment survey • May 2007: Alpha system created based on TAPIR light • November 2007: GEO, NBII, NASA fund GISIN data providers mtg in Geneva

17. Invasive Species System Task Group (ISSTG) • ISSTG purpose: to implement ISIS interest group standards and create an invasive species information system to cross search databases on the Internet • Leader: Jim Graham, Colorado State University’s Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory Our interests intersect with many other TDWG groups. Often hard to know what TDWG acronym lies where. FOR TECH DOCS & SYSTEM... http://squall.nrel.colostate.edu/cwis438/websites/GISINDirectory/ http://gentoo.cs.umb.edu/svn/GISIN/(schema subversion repository)

18. Invasive Species System Task Group (ISSTG) • Short-term areas of interest (& associated TDWG group): • Taxonomies (Taxonomic Names & Concepts--TNC) • Distributions (Observations & Specimen Records--OSR) • Terminologies (Structured Descriptive Data--SDD) • Biostatus (unique subset of Species Profile Model) GISIN Data Sharing System will use other TDWG standards, but also has some unique needs that make an interest group necessary. FOR TECH DOCS & SYSTEM... http://squall.nrel.colostate.edu/cwis438/websites/GISINDirectory/ http://gentoo.cs.umb.edu/svn/GISIN/(schema subversion repository)

19. Invasive Species Information Systems Interest Group • Mid- to long-term areas of interest: ISIS Interest Group • Descriptions • Pathways • Images • Identification tools • Management information • Expertise Because of overlapping interests, ISIS members are also active in several other TDWG interest and task groups FOR GENERAL GISIN INFO... http://www.gisinetwork.org http://wiki.tdwg.org/InvasiveSpecies (to comment)

20. Observations

21. Literature Interest Group • Over the past year we • Had the Literature Interest Group Charter approved • Had a very positive meeting yesterday which approved goals for the rest of 2007 • Ahead 2007 • Key literature talks are on Wednesday • Will have vocabulary/ontology proposal (based on TIP work) by 31 December (Task Group headed by Rich Pyle) • Will develop high-level crosswalk between TaxonX and taXMLit by 30 November– aiming for a high-level XML standard proposal by 31 December (Task Group headed by Terry Catapano (?)/Anna Weitzman) • White paper on dealing with abbreviated citations by 31 December • Ahead 2008 (by TDWG 2008) • Address future of previous Literature-related TDWG standards (Taxonomic Literature – 2, Botanico-Periodicum-Huntianum/Supplementum, Botanico-Periodicum-Huntianum/Supplementum, Authors of Plant Names • Begin work on lists of zoological publication names & zoological authors’ names • Agents task group will develop content standard

22. Collections Descriptions Interest Group • Over the past year we: • Had the Group Charter approved (May 2007) • Held monthly conference calls • Held a workshop at ETI in Amsterdam (June 2007) • Completed the move from XML Schema to RDF • Developed vocabulary entries for collections and institutions • Ahead • Complete the NCD Toolkit (see poster session) • Complete the documentation • Test a subset of NCD for information about institutions • Submit final version to TDWG approvals process • Develop implementation plan

23. Geospatial

24. Barcode

25. LTER Interest Group • Over the past year we • Looked at the synergies between LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) and TDWG • Decided that joining forces would be beneficial to both • Convinced the ILTER Coordinating Committee of this • Decided to propose an LTER interest group • Ahead • Everything else • If you’re interested – get in touch: • Kathi Schleidt • Katharina.Schleidt@umweltbundesamt.at

26. SDD Group We • Released final of SDD Version 1.1 after testing(requests to make TAPIR compatible - no trees!) • Implemented SDD 1.1 in: Lucid 3.4, IdentifyLife, Xper2, some EFG tools, DiversityDescriptions/DeltaAccess 2.0 • Submitted charters at regular intervals (24 Nov. 2006, 2 May 2007, 11 Sept. 2007, …) • Started discussions with the NEXUS (phylogenetics community) - considering their own XML format. Ahead: • Tue. 16-18:00 Combined SPM and SDD session • Tue. 19:30-21:30 "Structured descriptions and RDF" • Wed. 16:00-17:30 Session: Descriptions for analysis, identification, description markup, and taxon pages • IG Meeting on Saturday morning – all welcome!

27. SDD

28. GUID Task Group • Over the past year we • Have worked on supporting materials: on LSID Website • Have set up an LSID HTTP Proxy & looked after existing LSID software • Drafted the LSID Applicability Statement • Specifies how our community uses LSIDs • Funded LSID related projects • Deployed LSID Resolvers for Taxon Names • Also a few other data types covered • Development of LSID clients • Ahead • Key talks are on: • Monday: Introduction to LSID and NALA Demonstration • Tuesday: 5 talks on LSID Session • Ratify TDWG LSID Applicability Statement • Documentation: LSID Setup Guide • Continue deployment of LSIDs • Increase coverage of other data types: • Specimens, Observations, Organizations, People