OBIS renewal proposal CoML SSC Hangzhou, 25 May 2008

Outline Review of Draft Renewal Proposal: Funding and Long term Governance Issues –Discussion note –Part of GB Notes –Priority issues Outcomes of Governing Board Meeting, April –GB notes Outcomes of Management Committee Meeting, February

Draft renewal proposal Executive Summary (1 page) Context –Long-term project goals and scope –Collaborative links –Accomplishments to date Proposed work –Change governance: sustainability –Content –Technical –Education and outreach Project Outcomes Budget, budget justification (including matching funds)

Outcomes Metrics –240,000 (?) species with at least one distribution record –At least one observation in each one-degree cell that has been sampled –Range maps, EoL pages, interoperability with other organisations (BOLD, FAO, IOOS…)… Measure of success –Completeness of database –Visibility and use –OBIS known and used by scientists as source of data, and as repository (data as publication) –As a result, OBIS is sustainable Needs careful checking against expectations Needs timeline

Funding Sloan – funding not sufficient for core operations at the secretariat Several RONs sustainable Several small iOBIS proposals successful –Several larger ones were not (IOOS) –Several submitted ATOL in collaboration with EoL –Several planned, proposal or an advanced draft will be attached to the proposal for Sloan

Situation at RONs Most of RONS sustainable –Part of core activity of host institute –Successful proposals –Some RONs have limited activity because of lack of resources Some RONs would be able to sponsor participation in OBIS Network –Attending meetings… Only one RON suggested contributing to sustainability of central facilities (‘iOBIS’)

Funding: proposals NSF –RNC to maintain RON network –BDI to maintain secretariat –INTEROP to create interoperability with US agencies like NASA and NOAA –DataNet? JRS Biodiversity Foundation –QC/QA protocols in RONs NATO ARW Grant –Set up RON for ex-USSR

Develop as a global infrastructure OBIS is infrastructure –Core activities should not be critically dependent on project funds –(But no one wants to pay for infrastructure) USA –Discussions with IOOS Environmental data Document QC procedures Ongoing dialog with DMAC –Discussions with NSF DataNet OOI? Europe: LifeWatch International: GEO BON

Sustainability implies staff Minimum staff required to run project sustainably –Redundancy in tasks –Critical mass –More data and products is more visibility Core staff: 3-4 people -> 1.5 M to 2010 Ideal staff: 6-7 people -> 2 M Available -> 0.9 M

Staff at the secretariat ExDir –Intellectual guidance –Scientific development and communications Portal Manager –Oversee operations Data Managers –Data Management including QA/QC Web site manager IT support Administrative support

Change governance Different models discussed –See separate list OBIS internal governance –Migrate from IC to GB Process started with creation of GB –First meeting in Rome

Governance structure Governing Board Executive Committee Executive Director Managers CommitteeScience Council Secretariat

Organisational models SAFHOS –country donations + fees for services + research contracts MBARI –endowment + research grants ASFA –nodes self-funded, FAO hosts secretariat –Some nodes assisted by secretariat –Resources through collaboration with commercial partner GBIF –country membership fees SCOR –country donations FishBase –MoU between partner organisations + research contracts

Model proposed by GB Closest to ASFA IOC becomes OBIS’ parent organisation –Need to investigate implications on governance and operations (‘blueprint’) –Will come with prestige but not funding Physical host not necessarily IOC –Rutgers University? Creating certificate course on OBI –VLIZ/IODE, SDSC, Australia, Canada Strong, active OBIS nodes –GBIF Or as (co-)parent organisation?

OBIS priority issues Rewarding data contributors Data rescue Multilingual issues/internationalization Data contribution from CoML Visualization

Rewarding data contributors By giving feedback from quality control procedures Integrating data in global dataset and returning integrated dataset Giving visibility –Through metadata –Create thematic portals, selectively showing data from the full OBIS data holdings, depending on the context (e.g. HABs, invasive species) Make data citeable –Work with GCMD and others on standard format for data citation –Make deposition of data a requirement for publication –Citation index for data Outreach: not necessarily to large public, is already done effectively by other groups

Data rescue Work with communities of experts in different parts of the world to identify data sources to be mined Work with GCMD and others to set up a system for discovery-type metadata, also for datasets not (yet) available through OBIS Organise competitive programme of funding to rescue data; criteria are volume and quality of data, and gaps in data already available

Internationalization Translate OBIS web pages in different languages –Suggestion of GB: UN languages –MC: has done Chinese and Portuguese Translate search interface in different languages Create regional portals, both for distribution data and for taxonomy

Contribution to CoML Services to Census projects, especially in terms of supporting their synthesis activities; similar services for other data providers –Supplying first-level information products from OBIS db (extractions, summaries, simple analysis) as a matter of routine Integrate all relevant data from CoML Field Projects and HMAP –Combine with data from RONs –Add ‘in situ’ environmental data

Visualization Re-invent the search interface on the iOBIS web site Provide more flexible/sophisticated mapping tools on the iOBIS web site Pre-compile standard result sets and make them available through the iOBIS site (global temporal or spatial patterns of diversity, number of species…)

Other outcomes of GB GB formalised –All present + JB full members, EV ex-officio –Work with session chairs –ExCom and GB coincide now that GB is small Many suggestions for improvement of web site –Better advertise successes RON network, hits on site, number of data providers… –Include use cases to demonstrate societal relevance –Have community part of web site Calendar, feedback system, discussion forum, news… Milestones and deliverables discussed

Other outcomes of MC RON Roles & Responsibilities finalised –Will be basis for MoU with all RONs New candidate RONs introduced –Philippines, Arabian Sea Development of Gazetteer –In collaboration with EurOBIS and SCAR-MarBIN –‘WoRMS’ for geography Development of toolkit for data providers –SCAR-MarBIN Results of taxonomic data cleaning presented TWG constituted and (afterwards) called

IT brainstorming group IT choices for OBIS made 10 years ago Are these still best options? New set of ‘tools’: –PostGreSQL, PostGIS, GeoServer, OpenLayers –Move away from home-grown solutions, adopt community-developed tools –Web services, flexible access to OBIS data –Interoperability!! Pilot by Chris Condit (SDSC) Basis for new OBIS web site Further development of OBI community