CETAF Strategy ISTC DWG

CETAF Strategy & Strategic Development Plan 2015 - 2025

Focus Area #4 - Biodiversity informatics and information technologies

ACTIONS

Action	Interpretation and notes	Existing activities	Planned activities	Products
Moving taxonomy into the digital world
i. Supporting shared database infrastructure and open access policies	There are no agreed CETAF open access policies. Is this adressed in one of the DiSSCo projects?	Existing shared database infrastructures with striong CETAF involvement are for example JACQ, DINA, and Diversity Workbench	xx	JACQ, DINA, Diversity Workbench
ii. Making taxonomy data digitally interpretable and retrievable	Relates to ISTC LOD activities as well as stable and standardised (web) services in general.	LOD activities in SYNTHESYS+ and Mobilise, Botany pilot LOD system; TDWG - BSC-IG (Biodiversity and Clients Interest Group)	xx	xx
iii. Increasing the use of collection data	ISTC ID initiative works towards this goal, we need more streamlined services for integrating collection data in research workflows	Botany pilot	xx	xx
Ensuring retrievable, connected and interoperable biodiversity data
i. Using commonly agreed ‘stable identifiers’ for the natural history collections	Clearly CETAF IDs	CETAF/ISTC ID initiative, activities in SYNTHESYS+	ID Registry, standard (RDF) metadata	xx
ii. Implementing recognised collection metadata descriptions	Unclear, where this will be defined and implemented; relates to CETAF passports and other (TDWG) attempest to standardise collection descriptions	xx	xx	xx
iii. Linking European, national and regional collections of specimens and data (checklists or databases)	Extend LOD-approach to "other" data types	SYNTHESYS+ standards work package	xx	xx
Disseminating data and data processing standards, thesauri and controlled vocabularies
i. Continuing the development of compatible data standards	Much progress with regard to collection data (ABCD, DwC, etc.), more work needed for establishing agreed vocabularies and standards for "other" data types	SYNTHESYS+ standards work package, Mobilise	DiSSCo Prepare Data Model	ABCD; DwC; GGBN
ii. Adopting and implementing guidelines on standards	Adoption of standards can be measured by the number of standards compliant service implementations (e.g. collection provider software, LOD services, etc.). "Implementing guidelines" does not really differ from iii.	SYNTHESYS+ ID/LOD activities	xx	xx
iii. Collating and distributing interoperable standards for biodiversity data and natural history specimen databasing	Should be a dynamic documentation (e.g. wiki page) linking to actively maintained standardisation efforts	SYNTHESYS+, Mobilise	DiSSCo prepare	xx
iv. Establishing and promoting specimen data and database citation standards (source recognition)	Is this addressed in CETAF or one of the DiSSCo projects?	xx	xx	xx
Safeguarding long-term data storage, curation and longevity
i. Organising the maintenance of a supported system for data storage	xx	Mobilise WG for data archiving	xx	xx
ii. Adopting processes for orphan databases or digital information	Not yet a CETAF activity. There is a national (German) system dealing with orphaned databases (https://rebind.bgbm.org/), which could be used as a basis for a European activity. There is also a CODATA Interest Group "data at risk"	xx	xx	xx

TARGETS

Target	Interpretation & notes	State
CETAF interoperable standards for biodiversity data and natural history specimen databasing are adopted in 80% of CETAF institutions	Probably already fulfilled if we count the number of CETAF institutions with working (GBIF) provider software installations.	xx
CETAF standard identifiers are adopted in 80% of CETAF institutions	The number can easily be monitored once the ID registry is functioning. Broadening the implementations is part of the SYNTHESYS+ project.	xx
Digital data curation guidelines are produced and adopted	Needs to be coordinated with DiSSCo	xx
Digital storage capacity infrastructure is established within the consortium	xx	xx

Focus Area #3 - Natural history collection management and access to collections

ACTIONS

Action	Interpretation and notes	Existing activities	Planned activities	Products
Promoting the physical or digital accessibility to collections
v. Collaborating with major initiatives on specimen data sharing, data annotation and data-flow	xx	xx	xx	xx
Digitising and databasing collections
i. Exploring methods and best practices in data storage and data curation	xx	xx	xx	xx
ii. Supporting the development of digitisation policies, techniques and technology	xx	xx	xx	xx
iii. Exploring the development of storage and digitisation infrastructures	xx	xx	xx	xx

TARGETS

Target	Interpretation & notes	State
10% of our 1.5 billion natural history collections are databased, digitised and digitally available and scientific collection visits increase by 10%	xx	xx
CETAF best practice and common collections policies are implemented in the majority of member institutions	xx	xx