GBIF and the Biodiversity Informatics Landscape Donald Hobern GBIF Director Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) London, 24 July 2013

Vision - a world in which: Biodiversity information is freely and universally available for science, society and a sustainable future Origins and principles Established in 2001 Response to OECD recommendation Open to all countries Voluntary memorandum of understanding (MoU)

GBIF Participation Last updated: countries (38 voting and 20 associate) 46 international organisations

12 years – 405 million records

New portal – October 2013

Weaknesses with distributed data Id: CURC Species: Acalles dubius Location: Berlin, Germany Latitude: Longitude: Id: CURC Species: Acalles dubius Species: Acalles camelus Location: Berlin, Germany Latitude: Longitude: Curator Taxonomist Reidentifies Digitises Id: CURC Species: Acalles dubius Location: Berlin, Germany Latitude: Longitude: Distribution Modeller Uses Id: CURC Species: Acalles dubius Location: Berlin, Germany Latitude: Longitude: Environment Agency Rejects x Id: CURC Species: Acalles dubius Location: Berlin, Germany Latitude: Longitude: Climate Change Researcher Corrects

Toward a shared knowledgebase Curator Taxonomist Reidentifies Digitises Distribution Modeller Uses Environment Agency Flags issue Climate Change Researcher Corrects Id: CURC Version: 1 Species: Acalles dubius Location: Berlin, Germany Latitude: Longitude: Global Biodiversity Knowledgebase Id: CURC Version: 2 Species: Acalles dubius Location: Berlin, Germany Latitude: Longitude: Issue detected: Locality Id: CURC Version: 3 Species: Acalles dubius Location: Berlin, Germany Latitude: Longitude: Id: CURC Version: 4 Species: Acalles camelus Location: Berlin, Germany Latitude: Longitude: Technician Photographer Id: CURC Version: 6 Species: Acalles camelus Location: Berlin, Germany Latitude: Longitude: Sequence: ATTGCA... Image: jpg Images Sequences Distribution model Acalles camelus Id: CURC Version: 6 Species: Acalles camelus Location: Berlin, Germany Latitude: Longitude: Sequence: ATTGCA... Image: jpg Uses Publishes model

So what is needed? Data standards Persistent storage Culture of open reuse Collaborative curation Mobilising all primary data Interpretation of primary data

Persistent storage Long-term data management Stable data identifiers and citation Data replication

Culture of open reuse

Collaborative curation

Building the knowledgebase e-Infrastructure (services and culture to support data reuse) Organised Data (specific views and indexes of data) Models (best estimates of reality) Primary Data (all streams of biodiversity data) Assessments and Indicators Environmental, Climatic and Sociological Data

Thank you Donald Hobern, GBIF Director Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) London, 24 July 2013

Parallels with climate data

Knowledge today is easily lost Hexadactilia trilobata, Sulawesi Image copyright Richard Seaman Second known individual Only live photo for genus Ochyrotica taiwanica, Taipei City, 30 Jan Image copyright How do we connect experts with such observations?