Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) 2013 Symposium: Empowering International eCollaboration for Sustainability

Abstract

Communication and collaboration efforts aimed at sharing information and tool development, which cut across scientific disciplines and geopolitical boundaries, are often hampered by insufficient information about resources developed and used by ongoing projects, restricted by funding sources limiting access to expertise (which is also in itself, in short supply), and by a lack of sustainable infrastructure.  Many of the issues are well known, such as the silos isolating taxonomic domains, geographic and political entities, and the socio-technical challenges of multi-disciplinary communication.  Some of the possible solutions are also known, but effective implementation remains a bottleneck.  In an international setting, it is important to recognize that external outreach is an integral, explicit part of an eScience collaboration.  Likewise, funding agencies also need to work together in concerted partnerships to extend the reach of their investments.

TDWG is well-positioned as an international body to promote the exchange of biodiversity information and empower and implement improved international collaborations. As a volunteer organization, however, TDWG too, faces issues that makes sustained collaboration a challenge.  What are the successful models of collaboration? Can they be broadened to facilitate, encourage, and encompass attempts by those disciplines and geopolitical regions working on their own efforts to effectively and sustainably document and share information about biodiversity?

We have invited Eric Meyer (http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/?id=120) from the Oxford Internet Institute as a Symposium Keynote Speaker to discuss factors for success in bridging the transition to big science.