[NHCOLL-L:2676] GBIF DIGIT eConference is in progress

[Chuck.Miller at mobot.org]

To all,

The Digitization of Natural History Collections (DIGIT) program of the
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is currently conducting an
eConference that will continue until June 1 to discuss which taxonomic
groups should receive priority for the next round of GBIF seed money grants.

Your inputs into this discussion would be most welcome.

To join the conference register go to this web page:
http://www.gbif.org/prog/digit/conference/index_html

Thanks,
Chuck Miller, moderator


DESCRIPTION OF THE CONFERENCE
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) invites you to take part
in an electronic conference: GBIF Seed Money Prioritization - DIGIT which
will run from May 25 - June 1, 2005. 

In comparison to the expected demand, the funds available from GBIF to
support digitization activities in 2005-2006 are extremely limited. If the
2005-2006 DIGIT Seed money program's goal, as recommended by the GBIF Third
Year Review, is to produce quality data sets that are rich enough and have
enough geographic coverage to demonstrate to the scientific community,
politicians and funding agencies the value of the global digitization effort
these awards will have to be extremely focused and will need concentrate on
digitization activities targeted at specific taxonomic groups and have very
specific goals. This does not mean that the taxonomic groups or the goals
selected for this round of funding will be the same for future funding
competitions. In fact, it is expected that the emphasis will change as the
GBIF digitization prioritization plan is developed. 

The DIGIT Science Sub-Committee, at its April 21-22, 2005 meeting in
Brussels, considered possible criteria for the selection of the target
taxonomic group and endorsed the following: 
*	The resulting digitized observational or specimen based data sets
need to have a clear application in support of a major international
conservation initiative 
*	Digitization of this data increases the value of current GBIF data
coverage by filling in taxonomic and geo-spatial gaps 
*	The proposed taxonomic group should meet all of the following
criteria. 
o	Is well represented in a large number of collections or
observational data sets 
o	Has a broad global range 
o	Is of significant economic importance 
o	Is of significant conservation concern 
o	Accessible digitized specimen information is urgently needed to
answer specific scientific and taxonomic questions
As a starting point for the dialogue, the DIGIT Science Sub-Committee also
suggested that pollinators particularly bees (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) would be
one group that would meet these criteria and the resulting data sets would
make a valuable contribution to the:  "International Pollinators Initiative
(IPI)". As a starting point for the dialogue, the DIGIT Science
Sub-Committee also suggested that pollinators particularly bees
(Hymenoptera, Apoidea) would be one group that would meet these criteria and
the resulting data sets would make a valuable contribution to the:
"International Pollinators Initiative (IPI)". These data sets would help
address the lack of taxonomic information about one group of pollinators and
support the CBD's "Agricultural Biodiversity - International Initiative for
the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Pollinators", "The African
Pollinator Initiative" and "The Sao Paulo Declaration on Pollinators". 

All of these initiatives identify the need for additional taxonomic
information; in particular the need to repatriate data from the many of the
larger collections in the developed world (particularly type information) so
this information is accessible to scientists in the developing world. The
DIGIT seed money funds targeted at this group of pollinators would make a
very significant contribution to furthering the various pollinator
initiatives.
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