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GBIF has constituted a Task Group to address several questions about observational data, because the inclusion of even more observational data sets in the GBIF network will contribute greatly to achieving the 1 Billion Records goal.
The Observational Data Task Group is under the chairmanship of Dr. Steve Kelling, Director for Information Science at the Cornell Ornithology Laboratory.
Members of the Task Group are
- Dr. Baban Ingole, Manager, IndOBIS, Indian Ocean Node of OBIS at the National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa, India
- Dr. Denis Lepage, Bird Studies Canada
- Dr. Jerry Cooper, Landcare Research, New Zeland
- Dr. Matthew Jones, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
- Dr. Bruice Stein, NatureServe
- Dr. Tapani Lahti, Finland
The Observational Data Task Group will provide recommendations to GBIF about the mobilisation of observational data through the GBIF network. The volume of such records has the potential to far exceed that of specimen-based records.
The recommendations will include
- criteria for an observational data sharing infrastructure (ODSI),
- a metadata schema for observational data,
- protocols and standards for observational data exchange/sharing,
- a best practices guide for observational data management and exchange/sharing, and
- suggestions for ways to encourage participation of potential data providers.
These recommendations will be delivered to GBIF as one or more white papers, which will in turn be made available to the community.
The Task Group will work closely with TDWG and other initiatives engaged in the development of observational data management standards and protocols.
Vishwas Chavan is the GBIF Secretariat point of contact for the Task Group.
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