[Taxacom] Global Consultation on Converging Digital and Extended Specimens

[Jyotsna Pandey]

Over the past year there have been several exciting conversations about the
possibilities of digital representations of the billions of specimens
currently held in the world’s natural history collections. Two
concepts—the Digital
Specimen
<https://dissco.tech/2020/03/31/what-is-a-digital-specimen/?utm_source¼oN&utm_campaign‰326b34ed-BCoN_Jan2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f5d176a68e-89326b34ed->
proposed
by the Distributed System of Scientific Collections
<https://www.dissco.eu/?utm_source¼oN&utm_campaign‰326b34ed-BCoN_Jan2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f5d176a68e-89326b34ed->
(DiSSCo)
in Europe and the Extended Specimen
<https://bcon.aibs.org/2019/04/04/bcon-report-extending-u-s-biodiversity-collections-to-promote-research-and-education/?utm_source¼oN&utm_campaign‰326b34ed-BCoN_Jan2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f5d176a68e-89326b34ed->
emerging
from the Biological Collections Network
<https://bcon.aibs.org/?utm_source¼oN&utm_campaign‰326b34ed-BCoN_Jan2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f5d176a68e-89326b34ed->
(BCoN)
in the United States—are now aligning towards a shared vision that connects
all information related to a specimen, creating in effect “digital twins�
for the materials held in scientific collections.


Beginning in mid-February, a global consultation will seek to engage the
wider community on a handful of topics that have technical, financial,
social, governance and professional implications that require broader
discussion and consensus. The *alliance* for biodiversity knowledge
<https://www.allianceforbio.org/?utm_source¼oN&utm_campaign‰326b34ed-BCoN_Jan2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f5d176a68e-89326b34ed->
consultation
on Converging Digital and Extended Specimens: Towards a global
specification for data integration
<https://www.allianceforbio.org/post/converging-digital-and-extended-specimens-towards-a-global-specification-for-data-integration?utm_source¼oN&utm_campaign‰326b34ed-BCoN_Jan2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f5d176a68e-89326b34ed->
aims
to expand participation in the process, build support for further
collaboration, identify key use cases, and develop an initial roadmap for
community adoption and implementation.

Topics of the consultation will include:

   - Digitizing/mobilizing FAIR data for specimens
   - Extending, enriching and integrating data
   - Annotating specimens and related data
   - Crediting and attributing tasks like data and material curation
   - Analysing/mining specimen data for novel applications

Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), BCoN, DiSCCo, iDigBio, and
Atlas of Living Australia, among others, invite you to register for one of
the two virtual opening sessions that will be held on February 16, 2021 by
following the links below and then to become involved in the Discourse
consultation discussion process.

Session 1 6:00 UTC
<https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcodemvrD0vHdXJqojDgS3KACD8bbXorB-D?utm_source¼oN&utm_campaign‰326b34ed-BCoN_Jan2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f5d176a68e-89326b34ed->
Session 2 15:00 UTC
<https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwkf-2rrTkjE9zZIWu18G3DgDUHAGSyELz1?utm_source¼oN&utm_campaign‰326b34ed-BCoN_Jan2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f5d176a68e-89326b34ed->

The GBIF community forum landing page for the consultation
<https://discourse.gbif.org/t/about-the-digital-extended-specimen-category/2394?utm_source¼oN&utm_campaign‰326b34ed-BCoN_Jan2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f5d176a68e-89326b34ed->
is
also now live. This page will hold guidance on the consultation process
with links to the discussion threads.  Please see links on the landing page
to more background documents. If you are a new user of the GBIF community
forum you will need to register.

You are also invited to review the draft consultation outline
<http://bit.ly/esdsconsult?utm_source¼oN&utm_campaign‰326b34ed-BCoN_Jan2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f5d176a68e-89326b34ed->
and
to sign the Letter of Intent
<https://www.cognitoforms.com/DiSSCo1/LetterOfIntentForCollaborationInAGlobalAndOpenProcessOnInteroperableEnrichedSpecimenInformationModels?utm_source¼oN&utm_campaign‰326b34ed-BCoN_Jan2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f5d176a68e-89326b34ed->
.

The organizers are excited by the large attendance at recent related events
and expect a thoughtful and robust consultation.
___________________
Jyotsna Pandey, Ph.D.
Director of Public Policy, American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS)
Executive Director, Natural Science Collections Alliance
950 Herndon Parkway Suite 450
Herndon, VA 20170
Phone: 202-628-1500 x 225

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