TDWG 2010 Annual Conference Program

MBL Campus

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Proceedings of TDWG 2010

NEW: You can access the Provisional Proceedings of TDWG 2010 here.

Themes

  • Names, Concepts & Identifiers: impact of Codes on technical standards, how systems/standards represent names & concepts
  • Citizen Science: how do we engage other interested users in our projects / processes?
  • Agrobiodiversity: issues related to agriculture and crop biodiversity (carrying over new theme from 2009)
  • Literature & Publications: electronic publications & the Codes, how systems like Plazi, BHL, others assist users
  • Hardware & Infrastructure: innovative solutions for managing biodiversity data, implications for smaller institutions

Posters and Computer Demonstrations

  • All posters and computer demonstrations have an associated abstract.
  • Posters should be hung as soon as possible Monday morning (or Sunday PM if possible) to allow the maximum time for viewing and discussion. Please use the numbering order in the table. There is only one designated/formal poster time Thursday 5-6pm but please keep an eye on opprotunities to discuss you poster before or after sessions. 
  • Computer demonstrations will be help on Monday and Tuesday in the main auditorium and in Lillie 103. At this stage, demonstrations will only be held once, so make sure you note any that you must see.

Sunday, September 26: Registration & Opening Reception

2:00pm: Registration -- Swope Conference Center

5:00 - 6:30pm: Dinner

6:00 - 8:00pm: Opening Reception -- Meig's Room, Swope Center

Monday, September 27: Plenary Day 1

9:00am - 10:30am: Opening

  • Welcome: Secretariat
    9:00am - 9:20am: Donald Hobern
  • Welcome: Local Committee
    9:20am - 9:30am: Gary Borisy, Director, MBL
    9:30am - 9:40am: Nathan Wilson, LOC Chair 
  • TDWG & Biodiversity Informatics
    9:40am - 10:00am: David Remsen & Joel Sachs, BioBlitz Overview
    10:00am - 10:10am: Patrick Leary & Ajay Ranipeta, CodeBlitz Overview
    10:10am - 10:30am: Cynthia Parr, Recap of iEvoBio

10:30am - 11:00am: Coffee Break

11:00am - 12:45pm: Theme: Names & Concepts Session Chair: Rich Pyle, Bishop Museum

Speakers:

  • Arthur D. Chapman, Australian Biodiversity Information Services: e-Publication and Plant Names – using standards
  • Roger Hyam, NHM London & Yde de Jong, University of Amsterdam: PESI: Experiences Implementing Data Standards and Persistent Identifiers For Taxa
  • John Deck, University of California at Berkeley: Implementing field based data validation
  • Andrew C Jones and Richard J White, Cardiff University: Cross-mapping between taxonomies in the i4Life project: techniques for identifying relationships and the role of GUIDs
  • David Remsen and Markus Döring, GBIF Secretariat: A Darwin-Core Archive solution to publishing and indexing taxonomic data within the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) network
  • Lakshmi Manohar Akella, Holly Miller, Catherine N. Norton, MBLWHOI Library: Methods and Tools for Name Discovery/Identification and Mapping

12:45pm - 2:00pm: Lunch

1:30pm - 2:00pm: Computer Demos I

2:00pm - 3:45pm: Theme: Citizen Science.   Session Chair: Cynthia Parr, Encyclopedia of Life

Citizen science holds much promise for crowd-sourced data gathering and enhanced interaction among scientists and enthusiasts.
Speakers in this session will share their experiences and thoughts on improving citizen science. In particular,

  • How can standards and tool design foster improved data quality and sharing?
  • What can we learn from systems designed to support education and professional communities?
  • Where does the field of citizen science need to go in the future?

It is notable that citizen science is an underlying theme of the entire TDWG meeting.
This session will raise issues to be considered as we mount a biodiversity survey of Woods Hole on Wednesday.
Many TDWG participants will be testing tools and exploring data all week.

Speakers:

  • Jeff Holmes, Harvard University: The Encyclopedia of Life and Citizen Science
  • Marshall Illiff, Cornell University: Taxonomic and data-quality challenges of large-scale citizen science: Examples from eBird
  • Lori Scott, Nature Serve: Mobile Observation System for Handheld Field Data Collection
  • Emily Brown, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo: Amphibian Conservation Education Project
  • Elly Wallis, Museum Victoria: Biodiversity Snapshots: Engaging students in citizen science using mobile tools
  • Rob Stevenson, University of Massachusetts Boston: An overview of Citizen Science Needs for Biodiversity Standards and Tools

3:45pm - 4:15pm: Coffee Break

4:00pm - 4:30pm: Computer Demos II

4:30pm - 5:00pm: Computer Demos III

5:00pm - 5:30pm: Computer Demos IV

7:30pm - 9:30pm Evening mixer sponsored by WHOI
WHOI Exhibit Center, 15 School St.,
www.whoi.edu/page.do
A short jaunt across the pond from Swope! Check out the full-size model of the Alvin submersible while mingling with TDWG conferees.

Tuesday, September 28: Plenary Day 2

9:00am - 10:00am: Keynote: Dr. Michael J. Ackerman - Informatics: The Quest for Information Interoperability

Medical Informatics has been defined as the study of the flow of information through the healthcare system. The study rapidly leads to the conclusion that “med-speak” is more than one language, dictionaries are lacking, and the flow is often blocked. The same can often also be said about the compatibility of medical devices. Dr. Ackerman will explore the healthcare domain and show how existing standards are being put together to create both hardware and software interoperability thus fostering the rapid flow of understandable information.

Bio: Dr. Ackerman is the National Library of Medicine's Assistant Director for High Performance Computing and Communications, and is a pioneer within the field of medical informatics through his active research in medical imaging, high performance computing, and telemedicine. http://www.lhncbc.nlm.nih.gov/ohpcc/home/mjabio.html

10:00am - 10:45am: Theme: Agrobiodiversity. Session Chair: Elizabeth Arnaud, Bioversity International

Speakers:

  • Charles Kahindo, Université Officielle de Bukavu, DR, Congo: Biodiversity Information in developing countries: opportunities and challenges for promoting TDWG standards in Africa
  • Hannes Gaisberger, Université Officielle de Bukavu, DR, Congo: Accessing the original observation data captured during plant exploration missions for collecting crop diversity
  • Samy Gaiji, Global Biodiversity Information Facility: Beyond DarwinCore: Challenges in mobilizing richer content

10:45am - 11:15am: Coffee Break

10:45am - 11:15am: Computer Demos V

11:15am - 12:30pm: Theme: Literature & Publications  Session Chair: Chris Freeland, Missouri Botanical Garden

Mass Digitization Projects and Electronic Publications for Scientists, Librarians, Publishers and Informaticians

The online availability and accessibility of legacy literature and contemporary publications continues to expand through mass scanning projects and "born-digital" electronic works. This panel presentation will review issues surrounding these resources and the impacts they have on five traditional & emerging roles in natural history museums: a taxonomist, a librarian, a publisher, an informatician with a focus on schema building & data exchange, and an informatician with a focus on tool building & data extraction.

Speakers:

  • N. Dean Pentcheff, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County: Publication, paper, and data in systematics: More or Furthur?
  • Doug Holland, Missouri Botanical Garden: Libraries and the Code: The changing role of botanical libraries in the age of electronic publication
  • Penev Lyubomir, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences & Pensoft Publishers, et al.: Semantic tagging, semantic enhancements and XML-based editorial workflow from the viewpoint of a biodiversity publisher
  • Donat Agosti & Terry Catapano, Plazi: The future of Informatics in digital literature – or literature and its (digital) future

12:30pm - 1:30pm: Lunch

1:30pm - 3:00pm: Theme: Hardware & Infrastructure  Session Chair: Javier de la Torre, Vizzuality

Speakers:

  • David Thau, Google: The Google Earth Engine: A computational platform for global-scale analysis of Earth observation data
  • Tim Robertson, GBIF Secretariat: Challenges of operating a global biodiversity index
  • Phil Cryer, Biodiversity Heritage Library & Anthony Goddard, Biodiversity Heritage Library: Updates on the Global BHL Cluster
  • Kathryn Brisbin & Rebecca Shapley, Google: Use of Google APIs for Biodiversity Informatics
  • John Wieczorek, University of California Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Aaron Steele, University of California Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology & Dave Vieglais, University of Kansas: SilverLining: Biodiversity data meets cloud computing

3:00pm - 3:30pm: Coffee Break

3:00pm - 3:30pm: Computer Demos VI

3:30pm - 4:00pm: Theme (continued): Hardware & Infrastructure  Session Chair: Javier de la Torre, Vizzuality`

Speakers:

  • Alex Poigne, Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS, A., Hernández-Ernst, V., Hardisty, A., Voss, H., Berendsohn, W.: Vision and Ambition for LifeWatch ICT Infrastructure
  • Ian Cottingham & Stephen Scott & Leen-Kiat Soh, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA: The Biofinity Project – Application architecture for open data integration

4:00pm - 5:00pm: Lightning Talks

7:30pm - 9:30pm: Evening mixer sponsored by GBIF
Meig's Room, Swope Center 2nd floor
This will also serve as an informal orientation to the next day's BioBlitz activities.

Wednesday, September 29: Breakout Day 1

  • ALL DAY: (BioBlitz details here) This year’s TDWG meeting will include the opportunity to participate in a TDWG-sponsored BioBlitz, an opportunity to discover and explore different natural habitats in and around the Woods Hole area, locate and identify local taxa, and showcase software tools that can facilitate data capture, discovery, and visualization. The BioBlitz will include a number of field events in and around Woods Hole.   Field event descriptions and signup forms can be found here.
  • ALL DAY: Parallel Working Groups
    • Whale Watch (& pelagic birds)*.  We offer a full-day trip to Stellwagon Bank, a national marine sanctuary, via Provincetown.  See a number of species of whales and pelagic birds .  Consider this trip only if you would not wish to participate in any of the other Bioblitz daytime events or parallel working group sessions.  Cost $65 includes transportation and boat tickets.  (Limit 29 participants)
  • ALL DAY: CodeBlitz
  • For the parallel sessions please click here.

10:30am - 1:00pm: Coffee Available

11:30am - 1:00pm: Lunch Available

2:30pm - 5:00pm: Coffee Available

Thursday, September 30: Breakout Day 2

For the parallel sessions please click here.

10:30am - 1:00pm: Coffee Available

11:30am - 1:00pm: Lunch Available

12:30pm - 1:00pm: TDWG Business meeting (all welcome)

2:30pm - 5:00pm: Coffee Available

5:00pm - 6:00pm: Poster Presentations

6:00pm - 7:30pm: TDWG Banquet - Lobster boil
Swope Meigs Room & Dining Hall

Friday, October 1: Reports & TDWG Close

9:00am - 10:30am: Reports - BioBlitz & Working Groups

10:30am - 11:00am: Coffee Break

11:00am - 12:30pm: Reports & Close

12:30pm - 1:30pm: Lunch   

Friday, October 1: Annual Biofinity Workshop, Speck Auditorium 

This workshop is free of charge, except for lodging. Registration is required.  

Friday, October 1, Speck Auditorium

2:00pm - 2:45pm: Introductory Session - Overview of The Biofinity Project, philosophy, technology model, business model, brief demo (Stephen Scott, D.Sc., Associate Professor, Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Nebraska, USA; Ian Cottingham, M.S., Director, Computing Innovation Group, University of Nebraska, USA)

2:45pm - 3:15pm: Biofinity Use Case 1 with live demo - Mary Liz Jameson, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Wichita State University, USA

3:15pm - 3:45pm: Biofinity Use Case 2 with live demo - Emily Brown, Program Manager, Amphibian Conservation Education Project, Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, USA.

3:45pm - 4:00pm: Break

4:00pm - 4:30pm: Biofinity Use Case 3 with live demo - Federico Ocampo, Ph.D., Laboratorio de Entomologia, Instituto de Investigaciones de Zonas Aridas, Argentina

4:30pm - 5:15pm: Discussion Forum - Planned features and needs of potential users

6:00pm - 7:00pm: Dinner

7:00pm - 9:00pm: Social Event

 

Saturday, October 2: Annual Biofinity Workshop Continues, Speck Auditorium

8:00am - 9:00pm: Continental Breakfast

9:00am - 10:30pm: Tutorial and Demonstration - Setting up My Labs accounts, using data entry tools

10:30am - 11:00pm: Break

11:00am - 12:30pm: Tutorial and Demonstration, Continued - Using analysis tools, using mobile devices

12:30pm - 1:30pm: Lunch

1:30pm: Workshop ends

  Last Modified: 01 October 2010