Title | SPNHC 2014 DemoCamp: AnnoSys – an online Tool to annotate Biodiversity Data |
Publication Type | Presentation |
Year of Publication | 2014 |
Authors | Tschöpe, Okka, Suhrbier Lutz, Güntsch Anton, and Berendsohn Walter G. |
Keywords | ABCD, AnnoSys, annotation, BioCASE, central web interface, open-source, SPNHC 2014 DemoCamp, web-based application |
Abstract | Annotations are an important quality control mechanism in biodiversity research. The increasing accessibility of specimen data via the Internet calls for a general online annotation system that ensures the continuance of traditional data sharing and documentation of specimen data after their mobilisation through digitisation.
The AnnoSys project (https://annosys.bgbm.fu-berlin.de) developed an annotation data repository for complex and cross-linked data including back-end server functionality, web services, a message system and an on-line user interface. AnnoSys is an open-source, web-based application. The intended audience includes scientists and curators as well as citizen scientists. Based on the W3C Open Annotation Data Model, annotations are accessible via web services supporting SPARQL and Linked Open Data.
The AnnoSys interface allows researchers to create and search for annotations. If a record has been annotated, annotation and original record are stored together in the annotation data repository and are accessible through the AnnoSys user interface. A message system informs curators and scientists specifically interested in a subset of data about new annotations.
Unlike simple annotation systems that allow only unstructured comments associated with records, AnnoSys allows structured annotations of specific elements of a record. AnnoSys has been implemented using ABCD-standardised data from botanical collections and is now integrated into the Virtual Herbarium Berolinense and the BioCASE portal.
In contrast to the Filtered Push project, which pursues a distributed approach in facilitating and communicating online annotations, AnnoSys provides a central web interface and data repository that can be queried externally.
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