Report prepared for the Experts Meeting Towards the Implementation of a Global Invasive Species
Information Network (GISIN), 6-8 April, 2004. Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Page 60
8/30/2004
provider that is searching for information.
This tool can provide a data warehouse for
individual data providers on one shared
Web server. The files are displayed in
GBIF’s custom folder structure just as they
would appear on a file server.
Data Portals
Anybody can write a portal to access GBIF’s
distributed information resources. Portals
integrate all of this distributed data but a
portal is not required in order to share data.
Most thematic networks and countries want
to have their own portals. GBIF has its own
multilingual portal, opened just two months
ago, that allows users to search/browse
data by name, country etc., and to
download data. The portal maintains a
cache of key data (about 12 of these 47
Darwin Core elements are cached
centrally). The software code for the portal
will be available in the future.
… when people share their data, they
don’t have to use the latest scientific
name; they can use any name that
they happen to have in their
database.
GBIF Name Service
An important component of the code is the
name service that maps taxonomic names
from the Integrated Taxonomic Information
System and the catalog-wide partnership
against the observation data so that when
people share their data they don’t have to
use the latest scientific name; they can use
any name that they happen to have in their
database. When users query the data
through the portal the information on a
species will be retrieved for them,
regardless of the name that they queried.
This is a simple type of synonym resolution
that does not take taxonomic concepts or
homonyms into account, but it is quite
effective.
GBIF and GISIN
How is the structure of the GBIF network
relevant to GISIN? GISIN, or any large
network, would need a registry of providers
and their services, and an XML schema for
exchange of key data types.
There is already a solution for occurrence
data – the Darwin Core – but GISIN may
need to add something to the Core that is
specific to invasive species. Species fact
sheets need an XML schema and other
information could include bibliographic data
and expert directories. Then a data
exchange protocol for transporting these
data should be selected. GISIN will need to
have a standards committee, or like GBIF,
an arrangement with TDWG. At least one
integrated portal would be needed to
provide access to the distributed data
sources; possibly many portals. The
development of a complex system would
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Name Service:
major component of global index
Catalogue
of Life
and other
name
providers
GBIF Data Portal
Biodiversity
Data
Index
Taxo-
nomic
Name
Service
(ECAT)
User
requests
GBIF Data Nodes
Specimen DataLinks to other
Specimen Data
data
Specimen Data
Specimen Data
Name Lists
Specimen DataObservation
Specimen Data
Data
Specimen Data
Specimen Data
Specimen Data
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
GBIF Data Repository Tool
GBIF Data Repository Tool
Upload and manage datasets in
document format such as spreadsheet
and XML
Parses the data into embedded MySQL
database that becomes available to the
public as a DiGIR resource
Owner can revoke release (data is
deleted from database)
Enable data custodians to
manage and publish their own
data
Make available a simple data
warehouse tool for those who
want to host datasets for the
community
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