The programme "International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange" (IODE) of the "Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission" (IOC) of UNESCO was established in 1961. Its purpose is to enhance marine research, exploitation and development, by facilitating the exchange of oceanographic data and information between participating Member States, and by meeting the needs of users for data and information products.
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Last Updated on Monday, 03 October 2011 12:49 |
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Latest News
It is with great sadness that we have to announce the passing away of Dr Jacob Van der Land (1935-2011). He spent many of his productive years - before and after his retirement - on the Unesco Register of Marine Species, the European Register of Marine Species, and indirectly also on WoRMS. He was curator of Worms (Vermes) and head of the dept. of Invertebrates of the former Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (RMNH), later National Museum of Natural History, which presently is known as the Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity Naturalis at Leiden, The Netherlands. Within the IODE community we will remember him as a member of our IODE Group of Experts on Biological and Chemical Data Management and Exchange Practices (GE-BICH) - he participated in the 2nd Session in 2004.
More information on Dr Van der Land's work is available here
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We are pleased to inform you that Mr Mika Odido will be appointed as "IOC Coordinator in Africa". Mika will be based at the Secretariat of the newly created "IOC Sub-Commission for Africa and adjacent Island States" in Nairobi, Kenya. Mika was born in Kenya in 1958, is married and has 5 children.
He started his professional career in 1981 when he joined the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI). It is there that he became involved in international work: first as the GLOSS regional coordinator for the IOCWIO region and later as the Scientific Manager and Local coordinator for the RECOSCIX-WIO project. Since the year 2000 Mika was fully employed by IOC/IODE as the ODINAFRICA project coordinator, first in Mombasa and as from 2004 in Nairobi.
On 6 August 2009 Mika moved to the IOC Project Office for IODE where he was in charge of coordination and implementation of the ODINAFRICA project (4th phase) and other IODE regional programmes (ODINs). The Project Office in Oostende will miss Mika but we all wish him a lot of success in his new position. In Nairobi Mika will continue to manage the ODINAFRICA-IV project so we will continue our friendship and collaboration.
| ![groupphoto bios 2011](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120110022116im_/http://www.iode.org/images/stories/iode/groupphoto%20bios%202011.jpg) The 2011-2012 scholars in the Nippon Foundation (NF) - Partnership for Observations of the Global Ocean (POGO) Centre of Excellence (CofE) at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) successfully completed the IODE-Ocean Teacher Academy (OTA) course "University Curriculum in Marine Data Management," on December 15, 2011. The course is provided annually by OTA in a special cooperation agreement with BIOS. This is the third year of this activity, taught by Dr. Murray Brown. Shown here with their certificates are (left to right, top row) Gerry Giliant Salamena (Indonesia), Arvind Singh (India), Priscila Lange (Brazil), Anna Rumyantseva (Russia), Ousmane Diankha (Senegal), Chunli Liu (China) and (left to right, bottom row) Murray Brown (lecturer, USA), Mara Braverman (Argentina), Monika Orchowska (Poland), Elisee Toualy (Ivory Coast) and Yuna Zayasu (Japan).
The ten scholars for 2011-2012 were selected after an international competition, held every year for positions in the 10-month intensive educational program at BIOS. Various subject-matter courses are offered, as well as at-sea experiences. Further information is available at http://www.bios.edu/education/cofe.html.
| The IOC Project Office for IODE will be closed for the Christmas holidays between Friday 23 December and Sunday 1 January (incl). We will be back at your service as from Monday 2 January 2012.
Claudia, Kristin, Lies, Adi, Mark, Mika and Peter take this occasion to wish you, your colleagues and family all the best for the new year.
| The first session of the IODE Steering Group for OBIS took place at the IOC Project Office for IODE, in Oostende. During this first Session the SG reviewed the current status of OBIS, with special emphasis on the progress of its integration into IOC/IODE. Delegates representing the Regional OBIS Nodes (RON's) presented their latest achievements, aims for 2012 as well as their main gaps. A common problem of most Nodes is understaffing as well as lack of financial sustainability. Altogether, OBIS contains now over 30 million records, and 1 000 datasets. Technical details of the database were extensively discussed and possibilities for improvement. Short to long-term objectives were extensively discussed, including linking with other biodiversity databases, relation to new data providers, metadata policy, multi-language platforms, outreach and collaboration with other international programmes and initiatives. OBIS financial sustainability and external funding opportunities were discussed. Specific goals for OBIS were defined with-in the UNESCO Mid-Term Strategy (2008-2013) and IOC/IODE program priorities. A team based approach for operation of OBIS was established. OBIS will operate as a distributed infrastructure of nodes with leadership and coordination from the project office. Many tasks will be implemented through the nodes. Each task will be assigned a volunteer champion who will ensure that the task is completed on time. Additional volunteers will be sought on projects requiring a larger effort. A plausible approach for sustained operations of the Project Office will be included in the business plan. The plan is due to be completed in the early spring. Some of the key areas will be to closely link with IODE's programmes such as the Ocean Data Portal (ODP) and OceanTeacher. Mark Fornwall was elected Chair of the Group for the inter-sessional period. The report of the meeting will be made available in January 2012.
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The IODE Meeting & Training Centre
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Popular IODE Sites
Regions
ODINAFRICA
ODINBLACKSEA
ODINCARSA
ODINECET
ODINWESTPAC
ODINPIMRIS
African Ocean Portal
Portal Oceanico
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