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The independent reviewer who wrote the report was Dr. John McCarthy of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. McCarthy has been involved in a number of bioinformatics and metadata projects. He has served in a number standard bodies, and is one of the creators of XML schema.
Mc Carthy has completed an independent, technical review of the current and planned GBIF network architecture. He provided valuable feedback in 14 pages of cogent text. This feedback will be taken on board by the Secretariat ICT staff and others as the GBIF Network continues to grow.
GBIF can be very proud of the DADI Programme Officer, Science Subcommittee, and STAG as well as the members of NODES and others who contributed to the development of the GBIF information architecture plans.
The Executive Summary of the report reads as follows:
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility Network (GBIF) has designed and begun to deploy a network architecture “to enable users throughout the world to discover and put to use vast quantities of global biodiversity data, thereby advancing scientific research in many disciplines, promoting technological and sustainable development, facilitating the equitable sharing of the benefits of biodiversity, and enhancing the quality of life of members of society.”
Based on detailed review of GBIF’s excellent technical documentation and first-hand use of their current on-line facilities, it appears that GBIF is well on its way toward becoming one of the premier examples of a successful federated database network. Moreover, they have done so thus far on a remarkably modest budget by using widely used modern software, protocols and standards. Continued success may depend on whether GBIF resources can grow to cope with demands for expanded services and membership that their initial work is likely to stimulate.
In the future, GBIF can provide a model for other federated database projects, which can in turn contribute new ideas to GBIF and possibly even share development costs for some kinds of basic federated database infrastructure.
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