OBIS renewal proposal CoML SSC Hangzhou, 25 May 2008.

OBIS renewal proposal

CoML SSC

Hangzhou, 25 May 2008

Outline

• Review of Draft Renewal Proposal: Funding and Long term Governance Issues– Discussion note– Part of GB Notes– Priority issues

• Outcomes of Governing Board Meeting, 28-29 April – GB notes

• Outcomes of Management Committee Meeting, 27-29 February

Draft renewal proposal

• Executive Summary (1 page)• Context

– Long-term project goals and scope– Collaborative links– Accomplishments to date

• Proposed work– Change governance: sustainability– Content– Technical– Education and outreach

• Project Outcomes• Budget, budget justification (including matching funds)

Outcomes

• Metrics– 240,000 (?) species with at least one distribution record– At least one observation in each one-degree cell that has been

sampled– Range maps, EoL pages, interoperability with other

organisations (BOLD, FAO, IOOS…)…• Measure of success

– Completeness of database– Visibility and use– OBIS known and used by scientists as source of data, and as

repository (data as publication)– As a result, OBIS is sustainable

• Needs careful checking against expectations• Needs timeline

Funding

• Sloan– 2008-2010 funding not sufficient for core operations at

the secretariat

• Several RONs sustainable• Several small iOBIS proposals successful

– Several larger ones were not (IOOS)– Several submitted

• ATOL in collaboration with EoL

– Several planned, proposal or an advanced draft will be attached to the proposal for Sloan

Situation at RONs

• Most of RONS sustainable– Part of core activity of host institute– Successful proposals– Some RONs have limited activity because of lack of

resources

• Some RONs would be able to sponsor participation in OBIS Network– Attending meetings…

• Only one RON suggested contributing to sustainability of central facilities (‘iOBIS’)

Funding: proposals

• NSF– RNC to maintain RON network– BDI to maintain secretariat– INTEROP to create interoperability with US agencies

like NASA and NOAA– DataNet?

• JRS Biodiversity Foundation– QC/QA protocols in RONs

• NATO ARW Grant– Set up RON for ex-USSR

Develop as a global infrastructure

• OBIS is infrastructure– Core activities should not be critically dependent on project

funds– (But no one wants to pay for infrastructure)

• USA– Discussions with IOOS

• Environmental data• Document QC procedures• Ongoing dialog with DMAC

– Discussions with NSF• DataNet• OOI?

• Europe: LifeWatch• International: GEO BON

Sustainability implies staff

• Minimum staff required to run project sustainably– Redundancy in tasks– Critical mass– More data and products is more visibility

• Core staff: 3-4 people -> 1.5 M to 2010

• Ideal staff: 6-7 people -> 2 M

• Available -> 0.9 M

Staff at the secretariat

• ExDir– Intellectual guidance– Scientific development and communications

• Portal Manager– Oversee operations

• Data Managers– Data Management including QA/QC

• Web site manager• IT support• Administrative support

Change governance

• Different models discussed– See separate list

• OBIS internal governance– Migrate from IC to GB

• Process started with creation of GB– First meeting in Rome

Governance structure

Governing Board

Executive Committee

Executive Director

Managers Committee Science Council

Secretariat

Organisational models• SAFHOS

– country donations + fees for services + research contracts• MBARI

– endowment + research grants• ASFA

– nodes self-funded, FAO hosts secretariat– Some nodes assisted by secretariat– Resources through collaboration with commercial partner

• GBIF– country membership fees

• SCOR– country donations

• FishBase– MoU between partner organisations + research contracts

Model proposed by GB

• Closest to ASFA• IOC becomes OBIS’ parent organisation

– Need to investigate implications on governance and operations (‘blueprint’)

– Will come with prestige but not funding• Physical host not necessarily IOC

– Rutgers University?• Creating certificate course on OBI

– VLIZ/IODE, SDSC, Australia, Canada• Strong, active OBIS nodes

– GBIF• Or as (co-)parent organisation?

OBIS priority issues

• Rewarding data contributors

• Data rescue

• Multilingual issues/internationalization

• Data contribution from CoML

• Visualization

Rewarding data contributors

• By giving feedback from quality control procedures• Integrating data in global dataset and returning

integrated dataset• Giving visibility

– Through metadata– Create thematic portals, selectively showing data from the full

OBIS data holdings, depending on the context (e.g. HABs, invasive species)

• Make data citeable– Work with GCMD and others on standard format for data citation– Make deposition of data a requirement for publication– Citation index for data

• Outreach: not necessarily to large public, is already done effectively by other groups

Data rescue

• Work with communities of experts in different parts of the world to identify data sources to be mined

• Work with GCMD and others to set up a system for discovery-type metadata, also for datasets not (yet) available through OBIS

• Organise competitive programme of funding to rescue data; criteria are volume and quality of data, and gaps in data already available

Internationalization

• Translate OBIS web pages in different languages– Suggestion of GB: UN languages– MC: has done Chinese and Portuguese

• Translate search interface in different languages

• Create regional portals, both for distribution data and for taxonomy

Contribution to CoML

• Services to Census projects, especially in terms of supporting their synthesis activities; similar services for other data providers– Supplying first-level information products from OBIS

db (extractions, summaries, simple analysis) as a matter of routine

• Integrate all relevant data from CoML Field Projects and HMAP– Combine with data from RONs – Add ‘in situ’ environmental data

Visualization

• Re-invent the search interface on the iOBIS web site

• Provide more flexible/sophisticated mapping tools on the iOBIS web site

• Pre-compile standard result sets and make them available through the iOBIS site (global temporal or spatial patterns of diversity, number of species…)

Other outcomes of GB

• GB formalised– All present + JB full members, EV ex-officio– Work with session chairs– ExCom and GB coincide now that GB is small

• Many suggestions for improvement of web site– Better advertise successes

• RON network, hits on site, number of data providers…

– Include use cases to demonstrate societal relevance– Have community part of web site

• Calendar, feedback system, discussion forum, news…

• Milestones and deliverables discussed

Other outcomes of MC

• RON Roles & Responsibilities finalised– Will be basis for MoU with all RONs

• New candidate RONs introduced– Philippines, Arabian Sea

• Development of Gazetteer– In collaboration with EurOBIS and SCAR-MarBIN– ‘WoRMS’ for geography

• Development of toolkit for data providers– SCAR-MarBIN

• Results of taxonomic data cleaning presented• TWG constituted and (afterwards) called

IT brainstorming group

• IT choices for OBIS made 10 years ago• Are these still best options?• New set of ‘tools’:

– PostGreSQL, PostGIS, GeoServer, OpenLayers– Move away from home-grown solutions, adopt

community-developed tools– Web services, flexible access to OBIS data– Interoperability!!

• Pilot by Chris Condit (SDSC)• Basis for new OBIS web site• Further development of OBI community