1. ViBRANTVirtual BiodiversityViBRANTVirtual BiodiversityVirtual Biodiversity Research andAccess Network for Taxonomy:Project Overview Vince Smith Natural History Museum, Londonvince@vsmith.info

2. ViBRANT Virtual BiodiversityOutline Some background / why ViBRANT? Goals / what makes ViBRANT different What ViBRANT will do Logistics & collaboration Measures of success Longer term vision ViBRANTVirtual Biodiversity 2 of 27 3. ViBRANT Virtual BiodiversityOutline Some background / why ViBRANT? Goals / what makes ViBRANT different What ViBRANT will do Logistics & collaboration Measures of success Longer term vision ViBRANTVirtual Biodiversity 3 of 27 4. ViBRANTVirtual BiodiversityOur problemThe challenge of 21st Century taxonomy Goal Inventory the Earths species Document their relationships Publish & apply these data Data set 1.8 M described spp. (10M names) 300M pages (over last 250 years) 1.5-3B specimens People 4-8,000 taxonomists 30-40,000 pro-amateurs Many more citizen scientists? 4 of 27 5. ViBRANTVirtual BiodiversityA solutionThe transformative role of the internet & the World Wide WebYou are here Built of links The 1st Internet 1 trillion pages 4-node ARPAnet - 1969 2 billion usersfrom Hobbes Internet timeline (http://bit.ly/dtBJ2i)5 of 27 6. ViBRANTVirtual BiodiversityThe web applied to taxonomyBiodiversity informatics TDWG ProjectsDatabase 663 projects (Jan. 2011) 6 of 27 7. ViBRANT Virtual BiodiversityTowards a solutionThe European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy A Network of Excellence (NoE) 29 leading European, North American,& Russian natural history collections-basedinstitutions Circa 12M , funded under EU FP6 March 2006 - February 2011 Products Funding Training & outreach Websites Integrated scientific activities Inventories Computer tools7 of 27 8. ViBRANT Virtual BiodiversityScratchpadshttp://scratchpads.eu Hosted websites for taxonomists Research & publication platform Modular (Drupal) & flexible Supports the taxonomic workflow 2,500 users (unpaid) from 2007 Ecosystem of communities (~200)8 of 27 9. ViBRANT Virtual Biodiversity9 of 27 10. ViBRANTVirtual BiodiversityOutline Some background / why ViBRANT? Goals / what makes ViBRANT different What ViBRANT will do Logistics & collaboration Measures of success Longer term visionViBRANT Virtual Biodiversity 10 of 27 11. ViBRANTVirtual Biodiversity11 of 27 12. ViBRANT Virtual BiodiversityGoals of ViBRANT To set up the means, tools and infrastructure to produce a more rational and a more effective framework for European Biodiversity research.Connecting people ViBRANT connects people studying biodiversity regardless of their location. Each community website (Scratchpad) contains tools and services that enable users to study biodiversity in all its different facets.Connecting data Information about biodiversity is scattered in a myriad of different places. ViBRANT helps defragment this information providing a window on the natural world that can be filtered according to users needs.Connecting science ViBRANT bridges the gap between the producers & consumers of taxonomic information, providing the tools to help explain & predict the distribution of life on Earth.12 of 27 13. ViBRANT Virtual BiodiversityWhat we will doE-Infrastructure products A Virtual Research Environment (Scratchpads) where users can safely store, share and manage data. Analytical services for users to build identification keys and phylogenetic trees. A publication platform for users to automatically compile manuscripts from their research database. A portal for users the best Virtual Research Environment Creating to centrally access publicly accessible biodiversity research information and literature. & systematic research communityfor the taxonomic Training, support & sociological study, helping research communities to use these tools and services. A standards compliant technical architecture that can be sustained by biodiversity research community. ViBRANT is primarily a tool, secondarily a data provider 13 of 27 14. ViBRANT Virtual BiodiversityWho is doing it The Natural History Museum, London (NHM) - Scratchpad VRE development & management Hellenic Center for Marine Research, Crete (HCMR) - Extension into ecol.,con. & citizen science, esp. marine biodiversity Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) - Training, outreach & community support Oxford e-Research Centre (UOXF.E9) - Mol. ID tools, services and data analysis Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) - User studies (sociological studies of user practices) Julius Khn-Institute (JKI) - Data integration via controlled vocabularies & ontologies Museum fr Naturkunde, Berlin (MFN) - Biodiversity inventorying & monitoring (mobile devices) University of Amsterdam (UvA) - Standards development (PESI) The Open University (OU) - Data mining and bibliographies (BHL) Karlsruher Institut fr Technologie (KIT) - Document Markup & natural language text processing Vizzuality (Vizz) - Data visualisation & analysis (data layers) Pensoft Publishers (PENSOFT) - Push-button manuscript submission from the Scratchpad VRE Universit Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6 (UPMC) - Morphological identification keys and services (Xper2) Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) - Controlled vocab. dev. & userbase expansion via GBIF nodes Freie Universitt Berlin (BGBM) - Data aggregation portal via CDM Universit de la Runion (UdlR) - Mathematics & HCI of taxonomic identification keys17 partners in 9 countries University of Trieste(universities, museums & SMEs) - Key2Nature integration & outreach 14 of 27 15. ViBRANT Virtual BiodiversityWhat makes ViBRANT differentIts (mostly) not researchViBRANT is primarily about tools & servicesIts is about audiencesViBRANT is driven by its users (old & new)Our work program is flexibleRe-writing our deliverables is one of the deliverables!ViBRANT is agileThe perpetual beta - like taxonomyViBRANT is sustainableWe do things simply & cheaply, such that we can maintain them 15 of 27 16. ViBRANTVirtual BiodiversityOutline Some background / why ViBRANT Goals / what makes ViBRANT different What ViBRANT will do Logistics & collaboration Measures of success Longer term visionViBRANT Virtual Biodiversity 16 of 27 17. 8 of 14ViBRANT Virtual BiodiversityMacro Organisation (CP-CSA) WP1. (435,125 ) Management, coordination & administration (7 partners) Networking Activities (1,805,885 ) WP3. (683,242 ) Training, outreach & community support (4) WP4. (713,784 ) Standardisation (5) WP8. (408,859 ) Ecological and conservation data mobilization (5) Service Activities (1,025,578 ) WP5. (755,913 ) Interaction and data services (5) WP6. (269,665 ) Scholarly Publishing (2) Research Activities (1,483,411 ) WP2. (858,495 ) Technical architecture (2) WP7. (624,916 ) Biodiversity literature data access & data mining (4)17 of 27 18. ViBRANT Virtual BiodiversityViBRANT Project planThe chromosome NETWORKINGWP4. StandardsWP3. TrainingWP8. Mobilisation SERVICE RESEARCHWP5. DataWP2. Architecture WP6. PublishingWP7. Literature18 of 27 19. ViBRANTVirtual BiodiversityOutline Some background / why ViBRANT Goals / what makes ViBRANT different What ViBRANT will do Logistics & collaboration Measures of success Longer term visionViBRANT Virtual Biodiversity 19 of 27 20. ViBRANT Virtual BiodiversityViBRANT logistics Started December 2010 (36 months) Project website (http://vbrant.eu) Virtual Research Communities, CP-CSA, EU FP7 6.2M Euros (EU Contribution 4.75M) 17 Partners in 9 countries, 603 person monthsCollaboration (not just EU) ESFRI Projects: LifeWatch, ELIXIR & EMBRC GBIF - controlled vocabularies, nodes & observational data recording PESI, 4D4Life & related EU projects Encyclopedia of Life, Barcode of Life & Biodiversity Heritage Library South African National Biodiversity Institute & Atlas of living Australia 20 of 27 21. ViBRANTVirtual BiodiversityOutline Some background / why ViBRANT Goals / what makes ViBRANT different What ViBRANT will do Logistics & collaboration Measures of success Longer term visionViBRANT Virtual Biodiversity 21 of 27 22. ViBRANT Virtual BiodiversityShort term success metricsUser engagement as a measure of success*Networking (tools and collaboration) How many people are using our tools How deep is their engagement with these tools How are these tools changing what they would otherwise doServices (data & processing data) How much internal data is being called from outside the system How much external data is being called from inside the system How much are our services being used to add valueResearch (discovery of new information or approaches) Traditional academic metrics (publications, presentations, blogs etc) Uptake within ViBRANT & outside the consortiumboth quantitative & qualitative (WP3)* 22 of 27 23. ViBRANTVirtual BiodiversityLonger term success metricsOnce ViBRANT project is overPersistence & sustainability Maintaining what we do (perhaps without money) If its valued, it will endure Not everything will persist!Finding new audiences ViBRANT is primarily about taxonomy & taxonomists Engage more people as taxonomists (e.g. citizen scientists) Reach out to other sectors e.g. conservation & ecologyEmbed our products outside the consortium Take up by other initiatives, especially outside the EU E.g. LifeWatch service centre, GBIF Nodes, publishers, CBoL, EoL 23 of 27 24. ViBRANTVirtual BiodiversityOutline Some background / why ViBRANT Goals / what makes ViBRANT different What ViBRANT will do Logistics & collaboration Measures of success Longer term visionViBRANT Virtual Biodiversity 24 of 27 25. ViBRANTVirtual Biodiversity(My) Longer term visionTaxonomys three problems, & my view of how we fix themDefragmenting our output Tools that support technical & social workflows of taxonomy Provide the means to (loosely) aggregate that content ViBRANT Virtual BiodiversitySpeeding up out output Digitising collections Increasing our workforce (engaging non-professionals) Coordinated & standardised programs for new kinds of outputImproved labeling & findability Simple & persistent identifiers on defined concepts of everything Simplifying how we define (publish) concepts25 of 27 26. ViBRANTVirtual BiodiversityWhere taxonomy is nowAnd where we might like to be You arehere Built of linksThe 1st Internet 1 trillion pages4-node ARPAnet - 1969 2 billion usersfrom Hobbes Internet timeline (http://bit.ly/dtBJ2i) 26 of 27 27. ViBRANTVirtual Biodiversity27 of 27