EDIT needs Biodiversity Information Standards
Walter G. Berendsohn, Markus Döring, Malte C. Ebach
Abstract
The European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT) is a network of 26 leading natural history institutions and organisations in the European Union, the United States and Russia. EDIT is a “Network of Excellence” project financed by the European Commission, this implies that its main aim is the durable integration of institutional resources to jointly meet the challenges taxonomy faces today. The EDIT project started on the March 1st 2006 and will last until 2011.
An integral part of EDIT is the creation of an “Internet Platform for Cybertaxonomy”. This is a distributed computing platform that will allow taxonomists to do taxonomic revisions (including processing the results of field work) more efficiently, expediently and via the web. It consists of interoperable but independent platform components, which can take the form of software applications (desktop or web-based) for human users or (web) services. The envisioned platform will not have a single user interface or website, instead it will be a collection of interacting components which may be combined and assembled according to the task at hand. A central endeavour of EDIT is to establish a Common Data Model that platform components adhere to. In the near future, this will include more or less loose coupling with existing software solutions. More information is available at http://wp5.e-taxonomy.eu/EDIT-Architecture.html.
Present and future EDIT member institutions will join agreements for the maintenance and use of specific parts of the platform (components, standards, data provision or access) once they are considered mature enough for practical use.
For the development of the Platform, EDIT will closely collaborate with projects, organisations and initiatives with overlapping aims, prominently among them TDWG. Members of EDIT staff have been active in TDWG groups and meetings. TDWG offers an indispensable forum for contacts and networking among those active in biodiversity informatics. For EDIT software development, TDWG standards and discussions will be considered and incorporated. One obstacle is the lack of integration among TDWG Standards (e.g., TCS, SDD, ABCD), which on a structural level, are largely incompatible with each other. However, the achievements of TDWG groups on data definition at the atomic level (i.e., definition of the semantics of data elements) are recognised and indispensable for EDIT’s planned Common Data Model. This will need further development and well defined content standards (ranging from controlled vocabularies to data services), which requires close involvement of the biological community in TDWG working groups.
Another area EDIT is engaged in is certification of biodiversity informatics software. The new TDWG standards process is a possible model for such an endeavour. One of the criteria for “EDIT certified software” will certainly be compatibility with applicable TDWG standards as well as wider used standards recommended by TDWG.
An integral part of EDIT is the creation of an “Internet Platform for Cybertaxonomy”. This is a distributed computing platform that will allow taxonomists to do taxonomic revisions (including processing the results of field work) more efficiently, expediently and via the web. It consists of interoperable but independent platform components, which can take the form of software applications (desktop or web-based) for human users or (web) services. The envisioned platform will not have a single user interface or website, instead it will be a collection of interacting components which may be combined and assembled according to the task at hand. A central endeavour of EDIT is to establish a Common Data Model that platform components adhere to. In the near future, this will include more or less loose coupling with existing software solutions. More information is available at http://wp5.e-taxonomy.eu/EDIT-Architecture.html.
Present and future EDIT member institutions will join agreements for the maintenance and use of specific parts of the platform (components, standards, data provision or access) once they are considered mature enough for practical use.
For the development of the Platform, EDIT will closely collaborate with projects, organisations and initiatives with overlapping aims, prominently among them TDWG. Members of EDIT staff have been active in TDWG groups and meetings. TDWG offers an indispensable forum for contacts and networking among those active in biodiversity informatics. For EDIT software development, TDWG standards and discussions will be considered and incorporated. One obstacle is the lack of integration among TDWG Standards (e.g., TCS, SDD, ABCD), which on a structural level, are largely incompatible with each other. However, the achievements of TDWG groups on data definition at the atomic level (i.e., definition of the semantics of data elements) are recognised and indispensable for EDIT’s planned Common Data Model. This will need further development and well defined content standards (ranging from controlled vocabularies to data services), which requires close involvement of the biological community in TDWG working groups.
Another area EDIT is engaged in is certification of biodiversity informatics software. The new TDWG standards process is a possible model for such an endeavour. One of the criteria for “EDIT certified software” will certainly be compatibility with applicable TDWG standards as well as wider used standards recommended by TDWG.