In 2021, the Symbiota Support Hub (SSH), a newly-funded domain of iDigBio, was created to support, improve, and expand existing Symbiota-based data portals. Critical to this mission has been Portal Advancement Campaigns: initiatives of approximately one month during which the SSH directs sustained effort and attention to a specific data portal with the goals of:
- Updating collection metadata and facilitating data publishing to global aggregators (e.g., GBIF & iDigBio)
- Identifying data quality and Darwin Core alignment issues that can be fixed in batch and offer batch data cleaning
- Providing additional training to users and admins and/or develop documentation and resources, as needed
- Helping build and expand portal communities
Practically, Portal Campaigns typically consist of four virtual “Office Hours” meetings for a specific Symbiota portal community to discuss key topics related to the goals outlined above. These meetings always include time for questions and open discussion with portal community members. Presentations made during these meetings are recorded for future reference and for anyone who cannot attend synchronously.
This campaign focused on the Consortium of California Herbaria's CCH2 portal.
