Glossary of Tools

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Glossary of Tools

Short Name

A2IA

Long Name


URL

http://www.a2ia.com/

Definition

Handwriting recognition software

Short Name

ABBYY FineReader Engine

Long Name


URL

http://www.abbyy.com/

Definition

Commercial OCR software that can be used to convert typed and typeface label data from specimens into digital text.

Short Name

Acrobat

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro

Long Name


URL


Definition

Batch data extraction from TIFF & JPG formats

Short Name

AfrotropicalBirds

Long Name


URL

http://afrotropicalbirds.lifedesks.org/

Definition


Short Name

Amazon EC2

Long Name

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud

URL

http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/

Definition

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers. Amazon EC2's simple web service interface allows you to obtain and configure capacity with minimal friction. It provides you with complete control of your computing resources and lets you run on Amazon's proven computing environment. Amazon EC2 reduces the time required to obtain and boot new server instances to minutes, allowing you to quickly scale capacity, both up and down, as your computing requirements change. Amazon EC2 changes the economics of computing by allowing you to pay only for capacity that you actually use. Amazon EC2 provides developers the tools to build failure resilient applications and isolate themselves from common failure scenarios.

Short Name

American Bryological & Lichenological Society (ABLS)

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

AmphibiaWeb

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Animal Divesity Web

Long Name

Animal Divesity Web

URL

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/index.html

Definition

Animal Diversity Web (ADW) is an online database of animal natural history, distribution, classification, and conservation biology at the University of Michigan. Data include descriptions, still images, video, and audio.

Short Name

APC

Long Name

Australian Plant Census

URL

http://www.chah.gov.au/apc/about-APC.html

Definition

Database of the accepted scientific names for the Australian vascular flora, both native and introduced, and lists synonyms and misapplications for these names

Short Name

APNI

Long Name

Australian Plant Names Index

URL

http://www.cpbr.gov.au/apni/

Definition

Plant names and their usage in the scientific literature, whether as a current name or synonym

Short Name

Aradidae Database

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

ArcGIS

Long Name

ArcGIS

URL

http://www.esri.com/products/index.html

Definition

State-of-the-art, industry standard geographical information system software built by ESRI.

Short Name

Arctos

Long Name

Arctos

URL

http://arctos.database.museum/home.cfm

Definition

Arctos is an ongoing effort to integrate access to specimen data, collection-management tools, and external resources on the internet. Nearly all that is known about a specimen can be included in Arctos, and, except for some data encumbered for proprietary reasons, data are open to the public. Arctos is a multidisciplinary collection management information system for natural history. It integrates access to diverse types of collections (paleontology, entomology, botany, ornithology, mammalogy, herpetology) and data types, including specimen records, observations, tissues, parasites, stomach contents, fieldnotes and other documents, and media such as images and audio recordings. It also integrates data with projects and publications that either contribute to the collections or that use data from the collections.

Short Name

Atlas of Living Austrailia

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Audubon Core

Long Name

Audubon Core

URL

http://species-id.net/wiki/Audubon_Core

Definition

The Audubon Core is a set of vocabularies designed to represent metadata for biodiversity multimedia resources and collections. These vocabularies aim to represent information that will help to determine whether a particular resource or collection will be fit for some particular biodiversity science application before acquiring the media. Among others, the vocabularies address such concerns as the management of the media and collections, descriptions of their content, their taxonomic, geographic, and temporal coverage, and the appropriate ways to retrieve, attribute and reproduce them.

Short Name

Automontage

Long Name

Automontage

URL

http://www.syncroscopy.com/syncroscopy/products.asp

Definition

A software package produced by Syncroscopy and designed to produce clearly focused digital images with extreme depth-of-field.

Short Name

Barcode of Life

Long Name


URL

"
www.boldsystems.org
http://www.boldsystems.org/docs/handbook.php?style=popup&page=datasubprotocol#1"

Definition

"BOLD is a resource for the DNA barcode community. It supports the organization and analysis of barcode data. It provides a repository for barcode records, storing specimen data and images as well as sequences and trace files. It provides an efficient interface for submitting barcode records to GenBank. It provides an identification engine based on the current barcode library. It monitors the number of barcode sequence records and species coverage.
"

Short Name

BHL-China

Long Name

Biodiversity Heritage Library China

URL

http://www.bhl-china.org/

Definition


Short Name

BHL-Europe

Long Name

Biodiversity Heritage Library Europe

URL

http://www.bhl-europe.eu/

Definition

3 year project, involving 28 major natural history museums, botanical gardens and other cooperating institutions

Short Name

Bio Portal

Long Name


URL


Definition

Service for registering ontologies

Short Name

Bio2RDF

Long Name


URL

http://bio2rdf.org/

Definition


Short Name

BioCASE

Long Name

Biological Collection Access Service

URL

www.biocase.org

Definition

Transnational network of biological collections of all kinds. BioCASE enables widespread unified access to distributed and heterogeneous European collection and observational databases using open-source, system-independent software and open data standards and protocols

Short Name

biocode

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation (BISON)

Long Name


URL

http://bison.ornl.gov/bisn/

Definition

An integrated and permanent resource for biological occurrence data from the United States. Product of the U.S. Geological Survey's Biological Informatics Program. BISON allows users to explore and analyze U.S. species occurrence data from participating data providers.

Short Name

BioGeoMancer

Long Name

BioGeoMancer

URL

http://www.biogeomancer.org/index.html

Definition

A worldwide collaboration of natural history and geospatial data experts. The primary goal of the project is to maximize the quality and quantity of biodiversity data that can be mapped in support of scientific research, planning, conservation, and management. The project promotes discussion, manages geospatial data and data standards, and develops software tools in support of this mission.

Short Name

BioOffice

Long Name


URL

http://www.biooffice.at/

Definition

Tool widely acknowledged by a growing user community including leading Austrian museums and universities, as well as public authorities and non-profit organisations. The BioOffice application is used for the registration and documentation of biological collections as well as for archiving and evaluation of project-related data such as cartography of flora and fauna.

Short Name

BioSharing

Long Name

BioSharing

URL

http://www.biosharing.org/

Definition

BioSharing works at the global level to build stable linkages between journals and funders implementing data sharing policies, and well-constituted standardization efforts in the biosciences domain, to expedite the communication and the production of an integrated standards-based framework for the capture and sharing of high-throughput genomics and functional genomic bioscience data. BioSharing works with other organisations to: 1.develop catalogues to centralize bioscience data policies and reporting standards. ◦enrich these progressively by linking to other related portals and resources to serve those seeking information on systems serving or implementing the standards 2.moderate a communication forum for funders and stakeholders. ◦promote mutual support and cross-project activities to ensure the difference among the policies and standards do not impede seamless interoperability of the data.

Short Name

BIOTA

Long Name


URL

http://viceroy.eeb.uconn.edu/biota

Definition

Manages specimen-based, spatially and taxonomically referenced data for ecologists, conservation biologists, evolutionary biologists, systematists, museums and herbaria.

Short Name

BiSciCol

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

CABIN

Long Name

Central African Biodiversity Information Network

URL

http://gbif.africamuseum.be/CABINPortal/index

Definition

Funded for a period of 5 years by the Belgian Cooperation and Development Agency, is the implementation of a network of databases on biodiversity information, in collaboration with several research institutions based in Central Africa (mainly Congo DRC, Rwanda and Burundi). The project is a multidisciplinary initiative involving the different departments and units of RMCA.

Short Name

calphotos

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

CAMERA

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Canadensys

Long Name

Canadensys

URL

http://www.canadensys.net/

Definition

Mission to unlock the specimen information held by Canadian university-based biological collections and share this via a network of distributed databases, compatible with other biodiversity information networks like the Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility (CBIF) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

Short Name

Catalogue of Life

Long Name

Catalogue of Life

URL

http://www.catalogueoflife.org/

Definition

Indexing world's known species

Short Name

CBIF

Long Name

Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility

URL

http://www.cbif.gc.ca/

Definition

Member of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)

Short Name

CCH

Long Name

Consortium of California Herbaria

URL

http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/consortium/

Definition

Gateway to information from California vascular plant specimens that are housed in herbaria throughout the state. The database now (October 2011) includes information from more than 1.3 million specimens, all searchable through a single interface.

Short Name

Cercopoidea Organised On Line (COOL)

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

CETAF

Long Name

Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities

URL

http://www.cetaf.org/

Definition

Networked consortium of scientific institutions in Europe formed to promote training, research and understanding of systematic biology and palaeobiology,

Short Name

Collections Web

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

CombineZ

Long Name

CombineZ

URL

http://www.broadhurst-family.co.uk/lefteye/MainPages/combinez.htm

Definition

Freeware stacking software designed to produce a single, clearly focused image with high depth-of-field. Supports batch processing.

Short Name

Computer aided Identification for Phlebotoma of south America (CIPA)

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Consortium of North American Bryothyte Herbaria (CNABH)

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Consortium of North American Lichen Herbaria (CNALH)

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Darwin Core

Long Name


URL

http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/index.htm

Definition

The Darwin Core is a body of standards. It includes a glossary of terms (in other contexts these might be called properties, elements, fields, columns, attributes, or concepts) intended to facilitate the sharing of information about biological diversity by providing reference definitions, examples, and commentaries. The Darwin Core is primarily based on taxa, their occurrence in nature as documented by observations, specimens, and samples, and related information. Included are documents describing how these terms are managed, how the set of terms can be extended for new purposes, and how the terms can be used.


Short Name

DataONE

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

DataTurbine

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

DBTNT (Database to Name and Taxa)

Long Name


URL


Definition

PostGreSQL relational database conceptual schema

Short Name

DiGIR

Long Name

Distributed Generic Information Retrieval

URL

http://digir.net/

Definition

(DiGIR) is a client/server protocol for retrieving information from distributed resources. It uses HTTP as the transport mechanism and XML for encoding messages sent between client and server. It is an opensource project, originally conceived to be the replacement for the Z39.50 protocol used in the Species Analyst project, but is intended to work with any type of information, not just Natural History collections.

Short Name

Digital Florida

Long Name


URL


Definition

Public interface for biodiversity (collections, etc.), including web mapping application, for Florida. Initial proof of concept for FLMNH Biodiversity Institute, but no existing funding

Short Name

Discover Life

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Diva GIS

Long Name


URL


Definition

Open source GIS

Short Name

DIVA-GIS

Long Name


URL

http://www.diva-gis.org/

Definition

Mapping and geographic data analysis

Short Name

djatoka

Long Name

djatoka

URL

http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september08/chute/09chute.html

Definition

Open source JPEG 2000 image server.

Short Name

Dryad

Long Name

Dryad

URL

http://datadryad.org/

Definition

Dryad is an international repository of data underlying peer-reviewed articles in the basic and applied biosciences. Dryad enables scientists to validate published findings, explore new analysis methodologies, repurpose data for research questions unanticipated by the original authors, and perform synthetic studies. Dryad is governed by a consortium of journals that collaboratively promote data archiving and ensure the sustainability of the repository. As of Nov 18, 2011, Dryad contained 1090 data packages and 2583 data files, associated with articles in 94 journals.

Short Name

DSLR

Long Name

Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera

URL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_single-lens_reflex_camera

Definition

A digital camera, usually with interchangeable lenses, that captures digital images in one or more of a variety of formats.

Short Name

Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)

Long Name


URL

http://eol.org/

Definition

Open source web application to organize information by the names of living creatures

Short Name

EOL MCZ database

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

EUROPEANA

Long Name

Europeana: think culture

URL

http://www.europeana.eu/

Definition

Europeana enables people to explore the digital resources of Europe's museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections. It promotes discovery and networking opportunities in a multilingual space where users can engage, share in and be inspired by the rich diversity of Europe's cultural and scientific heritage.

Short Name

EXIF

Long Name

Exchangeable Image File Format

URL

http://www.exif.org/

Definition

A standard for storing image metadata and interchange information in image files, especially those using JPEG compression. Most digital cameras now use the EXIF format. The format is part of the DCF standard created by JEITA to encourage interoperability between imaging devices.

Short Name

exsiccati index

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Fauna Europaea

Long Name

Fauna Europaea

URL

http://www.faunaeur.org/

Definition

The scientific names of all European land and freshwater animals brought together in one authorative database.

Short Name

FilteredPush

Long Name

FilteredPush

URL

http://etaxonomy.org/mw/FilteredPush http://sourceforge.net/projects/filteredpush/

Definition

FilteredPush is an NSF-funded project of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, UC Davis, the Harvard University Herbaria and the UMASS-Boston Biodiversity Informatics Lab to build a platform for distributed annotation of distrtibuted data. It provides feedback to the data provider and any other parties interested in the annotations, based on configurable filters to select notification based on attributes of the annotation or the data. FilteredPush is designed to connect remote sites where annotations can be generated with the authoritative databases of the collections holding the vouchers to which those annotations apply. The name reflects function; Push, as annotations can be pushed from remote corners of the network back to authoritative data sets, Filtered, as the curators of these data sets can filter and reject annotations of their data.

Short Name

Fulgoromorpha List On the Web (FLOW)

Long Name


URL


Definition

FLOW: a taxonomic and knowledge base dedicated to planthoppers (Insecta, Hemiptera, Fulgoromorpha).

Short Name

Fuzzy Gazetteer

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

GBIF

Long Name

Global Biodiversity Information Facility

URL

http://www.gbif.org/

Definition

To encourage free and open access to biodiversity data, via the Internet

Short Name

GCI

Long Name

Grey Card Index

URL

http://kiki.huh.harvard.edu/databases/

Definition

The Gray Index (in part) is now incorporated into the International Plant Names Index

Short Name

GDAL

Long Name


URL

http://www.gdal.org/

Definition

Geospatial library for PostgreSQL. Required to implement map server and other spatial applications/libraries in PostgreSQL. Translation library for raster (GDAL) and vector (OGR) geospatial data formats.

GenBank

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

geneiouus

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Geographic Names Information System (GNIS)

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

GEOLocate

Long Name

GEOLocate

URL

http://www.museum.tulane.edu/geolocate/

Definition

Software designed to georeference natural history collections data by interpreting locality data and converting them into specific geographic coordinate pairs, including an estimate of precision based on the point-radius method. GeoLocate may be downloaded as a standalone desktop application, used via a web-based interface, or run as a web service against an existing online database.

Short Name

Georeferencing Calculator

Long Name


URL

http://manisnet.org/gci2.html

Definition


Short Name

GEOS (Geometry Engine - Open Source)

Long Name


URL

http://trac.osgeo.org/geos/

Definition

Complete functionality of Java Topology Suite (JTS) in C++

Short Name

GeotoolsGNA

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

GigaPan

Long Name

GigaPan

URL

http://gigapansystems.com/

Definition

A robotic camera harness that allows one of numerous DSLR cameras to take multiple images that can be stitched together to form gigapixel, high-resolution image files.

Short Name

GNA

Long Name


URL

http://www.globalnames.org/

Definition

Infrastructure that manages (the strings that serve as) names can discover, index, organize and interconnect on-line information about organisms and serve the needs of biologists

Short Name

GNIS

Long Name

Geographic Names Information System

URL

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=154:1:2731965477055666

Definition

The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is the federal and national standard for geographic nomenclature in the U.S. The U.S. Geological Survey developed the GNIS in support of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names as the official repository of domestic geographic names data, the official vehicle for geographic names used by all departments of the Federal Government, and the source for applying geographic names to Federal electronic and printed products. Datasets that can be downloaded include latitude/longitude coordinates, and may be imported into a GIS to assist in georeferencing.

Short Name

Google Analytics

Long Name

Google Analytics

URL

http://www.google.com/analytics/

Definition

Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible, and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way.

Short Name

Google Earth Engine

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Google Maps

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Grass

Long Name


URL

http://grass.osgeo.org/

Definition

GIS software used for geospatial data management and analysis, image processing, graphics/maps production, spatial modeling, and visualization

Short Name

Hadoop

Long Name

Hadoop

URL

http://hadoop.apache.org/

Definition

The Apache Hadoop software library is a framework that allows for the distributed processing of large data sets across clusters of computers using a simple programming model. It is designed to scale up from single servers to thousands of machines, each offering local computation and storage. Rather than rely on hardware to deliver high-avaiability, the library itself is designed to detect and handle failures at the application layer, so delivering a highly-availabile service on top of a cluster of computers, each of which may be prone to failures.

Short Name

Herbaria@Home

Long Name


URL

http://herbariaunited.org/atHome/

Definition

Welcome to Herbaria@home, a ground-breaking new approach to digitising and documenting the archives of the UK's herbaria. This site provides a web-based method for documenting herbarium sheets. We welcome participation in the project. Volunteers (citizen science) participate to enter label data from Herbarium sheets.

Short Name

HERBIS

Long Name

Erudite Recorded Botanical Information Synthesizer

URL

http://www.herbis.org/

Definition

This project offers proof of concept and an initial implementation of 'one-button' specimen imaging and data capture by which clicking the shutter on a digital camera would initiate a sequence that culminates with the population of label data and a specimen image into a structured collection database. The ultimate goal is to reduce the total cost of digital collection data capture by significantly reducing human labor required and total project duration. Significant gains can be achieved by developing appropriate protocols and methodologies, then packaging them as web services. Much of this can be accomplished by applying existing technology to data acquisition bottlenecks. The HERBIS webservice is now located at: http://www3.isrl.illinois.edu/~TeleNature/Herbis/src/web/htdocs/

Short Name

http://www.herpnet.org/Gazetteer/GeorefResources.htm

Long Name


URL


Definition

see link for georeferencing for guidelines/best practices

Short Name

http://manisnet.org

Long Name


URL


Definition

see link for georeferencing for guidelines/best practices

Short Name

HUBzero

Long Name

HUBzero

URL

http://hubzero.org/

Definition

HUBzero is a platform created by Purdue University with the collaboration of several other intitution and is used to create dynamic web sites for scientific research and educational activities. HUBzero allows users to easily publish research software and related educational materials on the web. It is specificially designed for scientific applications. InvertNet.org is built on this platform.

Short Name

Hymenoptera Online

Long Name


URL

http://hol.osu.edu/

Definition

Hymenoptera database. These data have been gathered with the collaboration of a number of colleagues. Other taxa still need work. If you would like to contribute to the further development and enhancement of this resource, please contact Norman F. Johnson or Luciana Musetti. For technical assistance related to Hymenoptera Online services, please contact Joe Cora. Visit the collection page for the C.A. Triplehorn Insect Collection at the Ohio State University for information on its primary and secondary type holdings as well as databased taxa in the collection.

Short Name

ICBN

Long Name

International Code on Botanical Nomenclature

URL

http://ibot.sav.sk/icbn/main.htm

Definition

The International Code on Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) acts as adviser and arbiter for the biological community by generating and disseminating information on the correct use of the scientific names of plants. The ICBN is responsible for producing the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, a set of rules for the naming of plants and the resolution of nomenclatural problems.

Short Name

ICR

Long Name

Intelligent Character Recognition

URL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_character_recognition

Definition

An advanced optical character recognition (OCR) or rather more specific handwriting recognition system that allows fonts and different styles of handwriting to be learned by a computer during processing to improve accuracy and recognition levels.

Short Name

ICZN

Long Name

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature

URL

http://iczn.org/

Definition

The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) acts as adviser and arbiter for the zoological community by generating and disseminating information on the correct use of the scientific names of animals. The ICZN is responsible for producing the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a set of rules for the naming of animals and the resolution of nomenclatural problems.

Short Name

IdentificationKey web service

Long Name


URL

http://www.identificationkey.fr/

Definition


Short Name

IdentifyLife

Long Name

IdentifyLife

URL

http://www.identifylife.org

Definition

IdentifyLife is a global, collaborative project providing ways to identify the world's living organisms.

Short Name

iDigBioCollections

Long Name


URL


Definition

Web application for scientific collections management developed initially for FLMNH collections. Designed to provide ontological flexibility and extensibility through use of triplestores rather than traditional table management. Manages collections, taxonomy, locations, loans, etc.

Short Name

IK

Long Name

Index Kewensis

URL

http://www.uk.ipni.org/ik_blurb.html

Definition

Indexing names of seed plants at the level of genus and species published since 1753, now totalling over one million records.

Short Name

ILDIS

Long Name

International Legume Database & Information Service

URL

http://www.ildis.org/

Definition

International project which maintains a database of plants in the family Fabaceae (Leguminosae) and provides services to scientists and other people interested in these plants, including this web-site for access to the database

Short Name

ImageMagick

Long Name

ImageMagick

URL

http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php

Definition

ImageMagick is a software suite to create, edit, compose, or convert bitmap images. It can read and write images in a variety of formats (over 100) including DPX, EXR, GIF, JPEG, JPEG-2000, PDF, PhotoCD, PNG, Postscript, SVG, and TIFF. ImageMagick can be used to resize, flip, mirror, rotate, distort, shear and transform images, adjust image colors, apply various special effects, or draw text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bezier curves.

Short Name

Index Fungorum

Long Name

Index Fungorum

URL

http://www.indexfungorum.org/

Definition

Global fungal nomenclator coordinated and supported by the Index Fungorum Partnership (CABI, CBS, Landcare Research-NZ), contains names of fungi (including yeasts, lichens, chromistan fungal analogues, protozoan fungal analogues and fossil forms) at all ranks

Short Name

International Plant Names Index (IPNI)

Long Name


URL

http://www.ipni.org

Definition


Short Name

InvertNet

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

IPNI

Long Name

International Plant Names Index

URL

http://ipni.org/

Definition

The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) is a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns, and lycophytes. Its goal is to eliminate the need for repeated reference to primary sources for basic bibliographic information about plant names. The data are freely available and are gradually being standardized and checked. IPNI is the product of a collaboration between The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, The Harvard University Herbaria, and the Australian National Herbarium.

Short Name

IPT

Long Name

GBIF Integrated Publishing Toolkit

URL

http://ipt.gbif.org/

Definition

The IPT is an open source software server written in Java that allows users to publish and share biodiversity datasets through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility network (GBIF). Designed for interoperability, it enables the publishing of content in databases or text files using open standards; namely the Darwin Core and the Ecological Metadata Language.

Short Name

IPT 2

Long Name


URL

http://code.google.com/p/gbif-providertoolkit/

Definition

Open source web application that makes it easy to share three types of biodiversity-related information: primary taxon occurrence data, taxon checklists, and general metadata about data sources

Short Name

ITIS

Long Name

Integrated Taxonomic Information System

URL

http://www.itis.gov/

Definition

Authoritative, searchable taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world, including synonymous and accepted names.

Short Name

JAI

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

JPEG2000

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

JSON

Long Name

JavaScript Object Notation

URL

http://www.json.org/

Definition

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate. It is based on a subset of the JavaScript Programming Language, Standard ECMA-262 3rd Edition - December 1999. JSON is a text format that is completely language independent but uses conventions that are familiar to programmers of the C-family of languages, including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and many others. These properties make JSON an ideal data-interchange language.

Short Name

JSTOR

Long Name

JSTOR Plant Science

URL

http://about.jstor.org/content-collections/primary-sources/jstor-plant-science

Definition

JSTOR Plant Science is an online environment that provides access to foundational content vital to plant science - plant type specimens, taxonomic structures, scientific literature, and related materials. This new environment includes over a million type specimens, paintings, drawings, correspondence, and supporting materials. By 2013, we expect to have over 2.2 million type specimens available, making JSTOR Plant Science the largest collection of its kind in the world. These materials are now truly global in scope representing over 200 partners in 50 countries on 5 continents.

Short Name

JTS (Java Topology Suite)

Long Name


URL

http://tsusiatsoftware.net/jts/main.html

Definition

API for modelling and manipulating 2-dimensional linear geometry. It provides numerous geometric predicates and functions. JTS conforms to the Simple Features Specification for SQL published by the Open GIS Consortium.

Short Name

KE EMu

Long Name

Electronic Museum Management System

URL

http://www.kesoftware.com/emu

Definition

This is a commercial software product used by many biological collections. The provider is KE Software. Claims from the website state: KE Software's Electronic Museum management system, EMu, is a collections management system for all museums, from the small to the very large. Engineered to manage all types of collections, EMu is suited to: Cultural collections, Anthropology, Archaeology, Science and Technology; Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Sculpture and 3-dimensional objects, Decorative Art, Performing Art, Photography, Textiles and Digital Objects; Natural History collections, including Zoology, Earth Sciences, Palaeobiology, Botany, Horticulture and Physical Anthropology; and Special collections, Digital Assets, Historical Societies and Archives.

Short Name

KML

Long Name

Keyhole Markup Language

URL

http://code.google.com/apis/kml/

Definition

Keyhole Markup Language (KML) is an XML notation for expressing geographic annotation and visualization within Internet-based, two-dimensional maps and three-dimensional Earth browsers. KML was developed for use with Google Earth, which was originally named Keyhole Earth Viewer. It was created by Keyhole, Inc, which was acquired by Google in 2004. KML is an international standard of the Open Geospatial Consortium. Google Earth was the first program able to view and graphically edit KML files. Other projects such as Marble have also started to develop KML support.

Short Name

LibXML

Long Name


URL

http://xmlsoft.org/

Definition

XML C parser and toolkit developed for the Gnome project

Short Name

LifeDesks

Long Name


URL

http://www.lifedesks.org/

Definition

LifeDesks are dynamic web environments that make the online management and sharing of biodiversity research easier than ever.

Short Name

Lifemapper

Long Name


URL

http://www.lifemapper.org/

Definition

Lifemapper uses all of the online geospatial species occurrence data to create distribution maps and, notably, goes one step further to predict where an individual species should exist based on where it is documented to live.

Short Name

LINCAOCNET

Long Name

Les Insectes Comestibles d'Afrique de L'Ouest et Centrale sur Internet

URL

http://gbif.africamuseum.be/lincaocnet/

Definition

Global access to knowledge about life on Earth.

Short Name

MaNIS

Long Name

Mammal Networked Information System

URL

http://www.manisnet.org/

Definition

With support from the National Science Foundation, seventeen North American institutions and their collaborators developed the Mammal Networked Information System. The original objectives of MaNIS were to 1) facilitate open access to combined specimen data from a web browser, 2) enhance the value of specimen collections, 3) conserve curatorial resources, and 4) use a design paradigm that can be easily adopted by other disciplines with similar needs. As an NSF-funded initiative, MaNIS achieves these objectives while avoiding the need for long-term, external maintenance of the network and centralized data management.

Short Name

MANTIS

Long Name

MantisBT

URL

http://www.mantisbt.org/

Definition

MantisBT is a free popular web-based insect tracking system. It is written in the PHP scripting language and works with MySQL, MS SQL, and PostgreSQL databases and a webserver. MantisBT has been installed on Windows, Linux, Mac OS, OS/2, and others. Almost any web browser should be able to function as a client. It is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Short Name

Map of Life

Long Name


URL

http://www.mappinglife.org/

Definition


Short Name

Map window GIS

Long Name


URL


Definition

Open source GIS

Short Name

MapReduce

Long Name

MapReduce

URL

http://hadoop.apache.org/mapreduce/

Definition

Hadoop MapReduce is a programming model and software framework for writing applications that rapidly process vast amounts of data in parallel on large clusters of compute nodes.

Short Name

MIBBI

Long Name

Minimum Information for Biological and Biomedical Investigations

URL

http://mibbi.sourceforge.net/

Definition

MIBBI is managed by a mix of community representatives and invited domain experts. The Portal exists to promote extant projects to the wider community (and each other) and to link to relevant resources. The Foundry is a project to synthesize reporting guidlines from various communities into a suite of orthogonal standards. Discussion lists, teleconferences, open-access development and meetings ensure openess and accountability.

Short Name

Missouri Botanical Garden

Long Name

Missouri Botanical Garden

URL

http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/

Definition

Oldest botanical garden in continuous operation and a National Historic Landmark.

Short Name

Morphbank

Long Name

Morphbank :: Biological Imaging

URL

http://www.morphbank.net/index.php

Definition

Morphbank :: Biological Imaging is a continuously growing database of images that scientists use for international collaboration, research and education. Images deposited in Morphbank :: Biological Imaging document a wide variety of research including: specimen-based research in comparative anatomy, morphological phylogenetics, taxonomy and related fields focused on increasing our knowledge about biodiversity. The project receives its main funding from the Biological Databases and Informatics program of the National Science Foundation (Grant DBI-0446224). Morphbank :: Biological Imaging was established in 1998 by a Swedish-Spanish-American group of entomologists and is currently housed at the School of Computational Science (SCS) at Florida State University. The project has grown immensely since its beginnings and presently includes a team of 15 biologists, computer scientists, and information scientists who are working on developing the software. Morphbank :: Biological Imaging is dedicated to using open-source software and is a Fair Use Web Site. The software used in the current Morphbank :: Biological Imaging system includes PHP, ImageMagick, MySQL, Apache, Java, and JavaScript.

Short Name

Morphster

Long Name


URL

http://www.morphster.org/

Definition

Ontology management tool

Short Name

Moss Bug Base (MBB)

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

MX

Long Name


URL

"http://mx.phenomix.org/index.php/Main_Page
http://mx.phenomix.org/index.php/Features"

Definition

"mx (preferred reference all lowercase) is a Ruby-based platform that consists of a Ruby on Rails (RoR) application and various supporting gems/libraries. Initially conceived and developed as a collaborative web-based content management system for biosystematists mx now has a wide range of functionality much of which can broadly categorized under the umbrella of biodiversity informatics.

Runs web-based, can run locally as well."

Short Name

MySQL

Long Name


URL

http://www.mysql.com/

Definition

Open Source relational database

Short Name

NCSA

Long Name

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications

URL

http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/

Definition

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, provides powerful computers and expert support that help thousands of scientists and engineers across the country improve our world. With the computing power available at NCSA, researchers simulate how galaxies collide and merge, how proteins fold and how molecules move through the wall of a cell, how tornadoes and hurricanes form, and other complex natural and engineered phenomena.

Short Name

NEOMAP

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

NIMBUS

Long Name

Nimbus Platform and Infrastructure

URL

http://www.nimbusproject.org/

Definition

An integrated set of tools that deliver the power and versatility of infrastructure clouds to scientific users. Nimbus Platform allows you to combine Nimbus, OpenStack, Amazon, and other clouds. Nimbus Infrastructure is an open source EC2/S3-compatible Infrastructure-as-a-Service implementation specifically targeting features of interest to the scientific community such as support for proxy credentials, batch schedulers, best-effort allocations, and others.

Short Name

OBO

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

OCRopus

Long Name


URL

http://code.google.com/p/ocropus/

Definition

Document analysis and OCR system, featuring pluggable layout analysis, pluggable character recognition, statistical natural language modeling, and multi-lingual capabilities

Short Name

ODBC

Long Name

Open Database Connectivity

URL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ODBC

Definition

ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) is a standard C interface for accessing database management systems (DBMS). The designers of ODBC aimed to make it independent of database systems and operating systems. An application can use ODBC to query data from a DBMS, regardless of the operating system or DBMS it uses. ODBC accomplishes DBMS independence by using an ODBC driver as a translation layer between the application and the DBMS. The application uses ODBC functions, and the driver passes the query to the DBMS.

Short Name

Openatrium

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

OpenModeller

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

OpenUp!

Long Name

Opening up Europe’s natural history heritage for Europeana

URL

http://open-up.eu/

Definition

Project which would provide this multimedia content with specific biological and multilingual functionality to a wide European cultural audience through EUROPEANA was proposed

Short Name

OpenZoom

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Oracle

Long Name


URL

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/index.html

Definition

Commercial high end data management system

Short Name

ORNIS

Long Name

ORNIS

URL

http://www.ornisnet.org/home

Definition

Over 5 million bird specimens are housed in North American collections, documenting the composition, distribution, ecology, and systematics of the world's estimated 10,000-16,000 bird species. Millions of additional observational records are held in diverse data sets. ORNIS addresses the urgent call for increased access to these data in an open and collaborative manner, and involves development of a suite of online software tools for data analysis and error-checking. This project, funded by the National Science Foundation, expands on existing infrastructure developed for distributed mammal (MaNIS), amphibian and reptile (HerpNet), and fish (FishNet) databases. Improved access to avian data sets will allow predictive uses to reveal patterns and processes of evolutionary and ecological phenomena that have not been apparent heretofore. Along with similar infrastructures for other vertebrate groups, it also will enable detailed and synthetic knowledge of the earth's biodiversity for tracking climate change, emerging diseases (e.g., West Nile Virus), and other conservation challenges for species in the 21st century.

Short Name

OWL

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

PaleoDb

Long Name

Paleobiology Database

URL

http://paleodb.org

Definition

Provide global, collection-based occurrence and taxonomic data for marine and terrestrial animals and plants of any geological age, as well as web-based software for statistical analysis of the data

Short Name

PaleoPortal

Long Name

The Paleontology Portal

URL

http://www.paleoportal.org/

Definition

This site is a resource for anyone interested in paleontology, from the professional in the lab to the interested amateur scouting for fossils to the student in any classroom. Many resources are gathered into this single entry "portal" to paleontological information on the Internet.

Short Name

PhenoBLAST

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Phenoscape

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Photoshop

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Planting Science

Long Name

Planting Science

URL

http://www.plantingscience.org/

Definition

Learning and research resource, bringing together students, plant scientists, and teachers from across the nation

Short Name

PLANTS Database

Long Name

USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database

URL

http://plants.usda.gov

Definition

Provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories. It includes names, plant symbols, checklists, distributional data, species abstracts, characteristics, images, crop information, automated tools, onward Web links, and references.

Short Name

PlutoF

Long Name


URL

http://plutof.ut.ee/

Definition

Provides cloud database and computing services for the taxonomical, ecological, phylogenetical, etc. research

Short Name

PostGIS

Long Name


URL


Definition

Adds support for geographic objects to the PostgreSQL object-relational database. Required to implement map server and other spatial applications/libraries in PostgreSQL.

Short Name

PostgreSQL

Long Name


URL

http://www.postgresql.org

Definition

Open Source relational database

Short Name

Proj.4

Long Name


URL

http://trac.osgeo.org/proj/

Definition

Cartographic Projections library for PostgreSQL. Required to implement map server and other spatial applications/libraries in PostgreSQL

Short Name

Psyl'list

Long Name


URL


Definition

Psyl'list is an online database dedicated to jumping plant lice. The aim of this ongoing project is primarily to make up for the absence of world catalogue for Psylloidea, in organizing taxonomic data and providing easy access to the published taxonomic data that is already available but scattered in the literature. Informations about geographical distribution and host-plants are partly available for some species and will be complemented continuously.

Short Name

Qgis (Quantum GIS)

Long Name


URL


Definition

Open source GIS

Short Name

Raintree

Long Name

Tropical Plant Database

URL

http://www.rain-tree.com/plants.htm

Definition

Provides accurate and factual information on the important plants of the Amazon Rainforest

Short Name

RDF

Long Name

Resource Description Framework

URL

http://www.w3.org/RDF/

Definition

RDF is a standard model for data interchange on the Web. RDF has features that facilitate data merging even if the underlying schemas differ, and it specifically supports the evolution of schemas over time without requiring all the data consumers to be changed. RDF extends the linking structure of the Web to use URIs to name the relationship between things as well as the two ends of the link (this is usually referred to as a triple). Using this simple model, it allows structured and semi-structured data to be mixed, exposed, and shared across different applications. This linking structure forms a directed, labeled graph, where the edges represent the named link between two resources, represented by the graph nodes. This graph view is the easiest possible mental model for RDF and is often used in easy-to-understand visual explanations.

Short Name

Recorder 6

Long Name


URL

http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=4592

Definition

Tool for those entering, collating and exchanging records of species and habitats. Fast and accurate import of data from a variety of sources and different formats, flexible reporting framework, and mapping facilities to enter, view and query data.

Short Name

REST

Long Name

REpresentational State Transfer

URL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_state_transfer

Definition

Representational state transfer (REST) is a style of software architecture for distributed hypermedia systems such as the World Wide Web. The REST architectural style was developed in parallel with HTTP/1.1, based on the existing design of HTTP/1.0. The largest implementation of a system conforming to the REST architectural style is the World Wide Web. REST exemplifies how the Web's architecture emerged by characterizing and constraining the macro-interactions of the four components of the Web, namely origin servers, gateways, proxies, and clients, without imposing limitations on the individual participants. As such, REST essentially governs the proper behavior of participants.

Short Name

RMCA

Long Name

Royal Museum for Central Africa

URL

http://www.africamuseum.be

Definition

As a research institute, the RMCA leads several scientific projects. Some 85 scientists and 150 students and trainees conduct research on an ever-changing continent of countless communities, lush forests, stark deserts, and unrivalled wildlife

Short Name

Scratchpads

Long Name

Scratchpads

URL

http://scratchpads.eu/

Definition

Scratchpads is a social networking tool to build, share, and publish information on the diversity of life. It is part of the EU funded ViBRANT project, and the NERC funded e-Monocot project. As part of these initiatives a new version of the Scratchpads will be released in January 2012.

Short Name

SEINET

Long Name

Southwest Environmental Information Network

URL

http://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/

Definition

Gateway to distributed data resources of interest to the environmental research community in Arizona and beyond.

Short Name

SEPASAL

Long Name

Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands

URL

http://www.kew.org/ceb/sepasal/

Definition

Database and enquiry service about useful "wild" and semi-domesticated plants of tropical and subtropical drylands, developed and maintained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Short Name

SilverLining

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

SOAP

Long Name

Simple Object Access Protocol

URL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOAP

Definition

SOAP, originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks. It relies on Extensible Markup Language (XML) for its message format, and usually relies on other Application Layer protocols, most notably Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), for message negotiation and transmission. SOAP can form the foundation layer of a web services protocol stack, providing a basic messaging framework upon which web services can be built.

Short Name

Sparql

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

Species 2000

Long Name


URL

http://sp2000.org/

Definition


Short Name

Species 2000 Europa

Long Name


URL

http://sp2000europa.org/

Definition


Short Name

Specify

Long Name

Specify

URL

http://specifysoftware.org/content/welcome-specify-6

Definition

The NSF-funded Specify Software Project offers Specify 6 and allied applications for museum and herbarium research data processing. Specify 6 handles specimen information for computerizing collection holdings, for tracking specimen and tissue management transactions, and for mobilizing species occurrence data to the Internet. Specify runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux computers; it is free and open source licensed. Specify 6.4 was released on 22 November 2011.

Short Name

SPNHC

Long Name

Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections

URL

http://www.spnhc.org/

Definition


Short Name

SQL

Long Name

Structured Query Language

URL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL

Definition

SQL, often referred to as Structured Query Language, is a programming language designed for managing data in relational database management systems (RDBMS). Originally based upon relational algebra and tuple relational calculus, its scope includes data insert, query, update and delete, schema creation and modification, and data access control. SQL became a standard of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 1986, and of the International Organization for Standards (ISO) in 1987. Since then the standard has been enhanced several times with added features. However, issues of SQL code portability between major RDBMS products still exist due to lack of full compliance with, or different interpretations of the standard.

Short Name

SYMBIOTA

Long Name


URL

http://symbiota.org

Definition


Short Name

SYNTHESYS

Long Name

Synthesis of Systematics Resources

URL

http://www.synthesys.info/

Definition

4 year project which began in September 2009 comprises 20 European natural history museums, Universities and botanic gardens. It aims to create an integrated European infrastructure for researchers in the natural sciences. SYNTHESYS is split into three activities: Access, Networking and Joint Research Activities

Short Name

SysTax

Long Name


URL

http://www.biologie.uni-ulm.de/systax/index.html

Definition

SysTax database system comprises: concept-based botanical and zoological systematics, literature, Botanic Gardens, Herbaria, and Zoological Collections, addresses, multimedia data (pictures, sound files and video sequences).

Short Name

TACC

Long Name

Texas Advanced Computing Center

URL

http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/

Definition

The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin is one of the leading centers of computational excellence in the United States. The center's mission is to enable discoveries that advance science and society through the application of advanced computing technologies.

Short Name

TAPIR

Long Name

TDWG Access Protocol for Information Retrieval

URL

http://www.tdwg.org/activities/tapir/

Definition

TAPIR specifies a standardized, stateless, HTTP transmittable, XML-based request and response protocol for accessing structured data that may be stored on any number of distributed databases of varied physical and logical structure. TAPIR combines and extends features of the BioCASe and DiGIR protocols to create a new and more generic means of communication between client applications and data providers using the Internet.

Short Name

TapirDotNET

Long Name


URL

http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/TAPIR/TapirDotNET

Definition

Implements the TAPIR protocol (stateless, HTTP transmittable, XML-based request and response protocol for accessing structured data that may be stored on any number of distributed databases of varied physical and logical structure)

Short Name

TapirLink

Long Name


URL

http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/TAPIR/TapirLink

Definition

Implements the TAPIR protocol (stateless, HTTP transmittable, XML-based request and response protocol for accessing structured data that may be stored on any number of distributed databases of varied physical and logical structure). Only tabular (denormalized) data can be served.

Short Name

TDWG

Long Name

Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG)

URL

http://www.tdwg.org/

Definition

Also known as the Taxonomic Database Working Group, TDWG is a not for profit scientific and educational association that is affiliated with the International Union of Biological Sciences. TDWG was formed to establish international collaboration among biological database projects. TDWG promoted the wider and more effective dissemination of information about the World's heritage of biological organisms for the benefit of the world at large. Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) now focuses on the development of standards for the exchange of biological/biodiversity data.

Short Name

Tesseract

Long Name


URL

http://code.google.com/p/tesseract-ocr/

Definition

OCR engine developed at HP (1985-1995), one of the top 3 engines in the 1995 UNLV Accuracy test

Short Name

TNRS

Long Name


URL

http://tnrs.iplantcollaborative.org/

Definition

Service that receives taxonomic names, and reports back the best name according to an authoritative source, in this case TROPICOS. The ability to 'reconcile' alternative names for the same species and return a preferred name can 'normalize' taxonomy in biodiversity databases that currently use different names

Short Name

TOLKIN

Long Name

The Tree of Life Knowledge and Information Network

URL

http://www.tolkin.org/

Definition

TOLKIN is an information management and analytical web application to provide informatics support for phylodiversity and biodiversity research projects. As a web-based application, TOLKIN is able to support collaborative projects by providing shared access to a variety of data on voucher specimens, taxonomy, bibliography, morphology, DNA samples, and sequences

Short Name

TROPICOS

Long Name

TROPICOS

URL

http://www.tropicos.org/

Definition

Tropicos was originally created for internal research but has since been made available to the world's scientific community. All of the nomenclatural, bibliographic, and specimen data accumulated in the Missouri Botanical Garden's electronic databases during the past 25 years are publicly available here. This system has over 1.2 million scientific names and 3.9 million specimen records.

Short Name

uBio/ClassificationBank

Long Name


URL

http://www.ubio.org/index.php?pagename=servers

Definition

"taxonomic concept server " focused on accurately representing subjective taxonomic opinion in the form of classifications and checklists. These classifications may vary considerably in both scope and precision. ClassificationBank draws upon NameBank elements to form the uBio Taxonomic Name Server.

Short Name

uBIO/NameBank

Long Name


URL

http://ubio.org/

Definition

"biological name server" focused on storing names and objectively-derived nomenclatural attributes. NameBank is a repository for all recorded names including scientific names, vernacular (or common names), misspelled names, as well as ad-hoc nomenclatural labels that may have limited context. NameBank defines and serves nomenclatural concepts as XML objects

Short Name

Universal Chalcidoidea Database

Long Name


URL

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/research/projects/chalcidoids/database/

Definition

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/research/projects/chalcidoids/about.html

Short Name

Vernon Systems

Long Name


URL

http://www.vernonsystems.com/

Definition

Vernon Systems Limited develops two collections management systems for museums and galleries: Vernon CMS, a world leading desktop system for medium-to-large organisations, and eHive, a hosted web-based system for small museums, individual collectors and consortiums

Short Name

VertNet

Long Name


URL


Definition


Short Name

VIBRANT/Scratchpads

Long Name


URL

http://vbrant.eu/

Definition


Short Name

VIVO

Long Name


URL

http://vivoweb.org

Definition

Open source semantic web application to enable the discovery of research and scholarship across disciplines at that institution and beyond

Short Name

VMWare

Long Name

VMWare

URL

http://www.vmware.com/

Definition

A company providing virtualization software founded in 1998 and based in Palo Alto, California, USA. The company was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2004, and operates as a separate software subsidiary. The company is most notable for its hypervisors virtual machine managers (VMM), one of many hardware virtualization techniques that allow multiple operating systems, termed guests, to run concurrently on a host computer.

Short Name

Windows Azure

Long Name

Windows Azure

URL

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/

Definition

Windows Azure and SQL Azure enable users to build, host, and scale applications in Microsoft datacenters. They require no up-front expenses, no long term commitment, and enable users to pay only for the resources used.

Short Name

WSDL

Long Name

Web Services Description Language

URL

http://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl

Definition

WSDL is an XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints operating on messages containing either document-oriented or procedure-oriented information. The operations and messages are described abstractly, and then bound to a concrete network protocol and message format to define an endpoint. Related concrete endpoints are combined into abstract endpoints (services). WSDL is extensible to allow description of endpoints and their messages regardless of what message formats or network protocols are used to communicate.

Short Name

Xen

Long Name

Xen hypervisor

URL

http://xen.org/

Definition

The Xen hypervisor, the powerful open source industry standard for virtualization, offers a powerful, efficient, and secure feature set for virtualization of x86, x86_64, IA64, ARM, and other CPU architectures. It supports a wide range of guest operating systems including Windows, Linux, Solaris, and various versions of the BSD operating systems. Xen powers most public cloud services and many hosting services, such as Amazon Web Services, Rackspace Hosting, and Linode.

Short Name

XML

Long Name

Extensible Markup Language

URL

http://www.w3.org/XML/

Definition

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple, very flexible text format derived from SGML (ISO 8879). Originally designed to meet the challenges of large-scale electronic publishing, XML is also playing an increasingly important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web and elsewhere.

Short Name

XSEDE

Long Name

Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment

URL

https://www.xsede.org/home

Definition

The Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) is the most advanced, powerful, and robust collection of integrated advanced digital resources and services in the world. It is a single virtual system that scientists can use to interactively share computing resources, data, and expertise. Scientists and engineers around the world use these resources and services things like supercomputers, collections of data, and new tools. XSEDE, and the experts who lead the program, will make these resources easier to use and help more people use them. The five-year, $121-million project is supported by the National Science Foundation. It replaces and expands on the NSF TeraGrid project. More than 10,000 scientists used the TeraGrid to complete thousands of research projects, at no cost to the scientists. That same sort of work only in more detail, generating more new knowledge and improving our world in an even broader range of fields continues with XSEDE.

Short Name

Zoomify

Long Name

Zoomify

URL

http://www.zoomify.com/

Definition

A popular web-based image viewer that allows easy panning and zooming.

Short Name

zooniverse

Long Name


URL


Definition