Distributed Biodiversity Information Databases A. Townsend Peterson

Paris Museum

British Museum

Field Museum

KU Museum

“World Museum”

Fish University of Florida

Fish Tulane University

Fish University of Michigan

Fish “World Museum ”

Making Simple Databases BETTER Georeferencing Standardization of taxonomy Error-detection and cleaning Integration with the ‘World Museum’

Data Sharing - Issues of Importance SecurityOwnershipControl Updates of information Funding and charging

Safeguards I Legal disclaimer: –No for-profit uses without permission of data owners (curators) –No repackaging and redistribution without permission of data owners (curators) –Data owners not responsible for data quality or accuracy –Negative data do not apply – absence of records is not indicative of absence of species, etc.

Safeguards II Data remain at the owner institution – no centralization involved No hacking – data are isolated from the original/master dataset Institutions may restrict access to classes of data, e.g., –Data from particular regions or taxa not served –Particular fields for sensitive species not served –Data for particular collectors or time periods not served –Etc.

Advantages Data ownership retained by institution that holds primary voucher specimen Data are updated as often as wished … daily, if preferred by owner institution Data quality improves over time Detailed reporting of use of collections data to data owners (soon!) Free and open access to users worldwide Community cooperation opens many doors

Construction of the NABIN Network

TSA Use I

Evolution of Technology Dublin Core/Darwin Core Z39.50DiGIRTAPIR

DiGIR Distributed Generic Information Retrieval ge.net/

Distributed Biodiversity Information Networks REMIB SpeciesLink MaNIS HerpNET ORNIS AVH GBIF ATREE

Primary Species’ Occurrence Data Recordings, images, videos Field notes, other ancillary information Stomach contents, etc. Scientific literature Geospatial data describing locality Parasites etc. Stable isotope data Gene sequence data Remote-sensing data showing locality in space and time ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ Taxonomic data