1. Globally Unique Identifiers in Biodiversity Informatics Kevin Richards Landcare Research NZ TDWG 2008

2. Introduction GUID (Globally Unique IDentifier) –What, Why, Which, How –LSIDs –Issues

3. What are GUIDs Globally Unique IDentifier A short name for a complex entity on the web Each name identifies only one entity Examples: –UUID eg 3E9D6B68-A08C-4F15-BC8A-1265F15D30E2 –DOI eg doi:10.1006/jmbi.1998.2354 –Handle eg hdl:123.456/abc –LSID eg urn:lsid:indexfungorum.org:names:213645 –PURL eg http://purl.oclc.org/abc/123

4. What is a GUID –Properties Persistent Opaque Resolvable, sometimes - useful for locating information about the entity

5. Why use GUIDs Data at Provider 2 BOOK : “Three little pigs” 2 copies Data Consumer Data at Provider 1 BOOK : “The three little pigs” 3 copies BOOKS: “Three little pigs” … (2) “The three little pigs” … (3)

6. Data at Provider 2 (ID = P2) BOOK : “Three little pigs” ID (eg ISBN) = A123 2 copies Data Consumer Data at Provider 1 (ID = P1) BOOK : “The three little pigs” ID (eg ISBN) = A123 3 copies BOOKS: ID : A123 : “The three little pigs”… (5) … but with GUIDs … BOOK Titles: ID A123 : Provider P1 : “The three little pigs” ID A123 : Provider P2 : “Three little pigs”

7. Example in our domain Consensus Id : urn:lsid:compositae.org:names:45240C9B-D419-4B6F-93A5-D0A6DEAB4C81 Name : Anthemis gaudium-solis Velen. ProviderIdTaxon Name IPNI urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:177325-1:1.1 Anthemis gaudium-solis Vel. Tropicos50163035Anthemis goudium-solis Velen. Euro+Med133202Anthemis gaudium-solis Velen. Govaerts {29FFBEDC-19F5-4899-BCB3-05EE2C7816C8} Anthemis gaudiumsolis Velen.

8. GUIDs are vital to TDWG architecture

9. Which GUID GUID Subgroup Recommendations: Use LSIDs for identifying biodiversity data Reuse GUIDs where they already exist –GUID type –Existing assignments See GUID Report - http://wiki.gbif.org/guidwiki/wikka.php?wakka=GUID2Report&show_comments=1 http://wiki.gbif.org/guidwiki/wikka.php?wakka=GUID2Report&show_comments=1 Also Canberra LSID Workshop report: http://www.tdwg.org/fileadmin/subgroups/guid/LSID_policy_workshop_Report_Canberra.pdf

10. What is an LSID? Life Science IDentifier Developed by The Object Management Group & W3C Implemented by the team at IBM Used for – data objects, datasets, images, files

11. LSID Format urn:lsid:bioguid.org:taxon:1122:v1 Prefix - indicates that this is a URN URN type - indicates that it’s an LSID-type urn Authority - the authority who issued the LSID Namespace - internal to that authority Object identifier - within that authority Version - optional

12. LSID Rules Data doesn’t change (byte identical) Always available for resolution –Hand over to another authority if necessary At least some basic metadata

13. Pros of LSIDs  Not tied to physical addresses (as URLs are)  Comparison can be done without resolving the ID – eg for cases like “does object a = object b”  Do not require any central registration or central service  Quick to adopt  Encourage thought and planning before they are allocated

14. Cons of LSIDs However …  Requires DNS SRV record  Requires specialised software to resolve an LSID (not built in to most software)  The restriction - “LSID data cannot change” can be difficult

15. How What data/objects to apply Ids to Decide on –Authority –Namespace –Local ids (new vs existing) Issue LSIDs Setup resolver

16. LSID Code Current Code Stacks –Open Source (sourceforge.net) –Java, C++, Perl (IBM) –Microsoft.NET (Myself) –TAPIR LSID configuration

17. LSID Tools IBM LSID Launchpad Firefox LSID Browser LSID Tester (Rod Page) Web based resolver – http://lsid.tdwg.org/ http://lsid.tdwg.org/urn:lsid...to get LSID metadata http://lsid.tdwg.org/summary/urn:lsid... to get summary info of LSID object http://lsid.tdwg.org/http://lsid.tdwg.org/urn:lsidhttp://lsid.tdwg.org/summary/urn:lsid Example LSID servers: –Index Fungorum - urn:lsid:indexfungorum.org:names:213649 –IPNI – urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:30000959-2:1.1.2.1 –uBio - urn:lsid:ubio.org:namebank:11815

18. Issues to think about Who assigns new LSIDs? Who maintains LSID resolvers? What to assign LSIDs to: –Physical or Digital –Granularity –Only objects that need to be resolved / identified externally –Is there any data, or only metadata?

19. Issues to think about When to resolve LSIDs –Every time an LSID is encountered, or only when a client requests it? TDWG standards for metadata –Which ones? –Consistent application

20. References LSID Source Forge - http://lsids.sourceforge.net/http://lsids.sourceforge.net/ LSID.NET Source Forge - http://sourceforge.net/projects/lsid-dotnethttp://sourceforge.net/projects/lsid-dotnet LSID Tutorial - http://www- 128.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-lsid/http://www- 128.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-lsid/ LSID Specification - http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?dtc/04-05-01http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?dtc/04-05-01 LSID Tester - http://linnaeus.zoology.gla.ac.uk/~rpage/lsid/tester/http://linnaeus.zoology.gla.ac.uk/~rpage/lsid/tester/ LSID Launchpad - http://www- 124.ibm.com/developerworks/downloads/detail.php?group_id=124&what= rele&id=553http://www- 124.ibm.com/developerworks/downloads/detail.php?group_id=124&what= rele&id=553 GUID Subgroup - http://www.tdwg.org/activities/guid/ GUID Subgroup Reports –http://wiki.gbif.org/guidwiki/wikka.php?wakka=GUID2Report& show_comments=1http://wiki.gbif.org/guidwiki/wikka.php?wakka=GUID2Report& show_comments=1 –http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/pub/TIP/TipDocuments/GUID1Report.pdfhttp://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/pub/TIP/TipDocuments/GUID1Report.pdf Firefox LSID developer site - http://lsid.mozdev.org/http://lsid.mozdev.org/