User needs assessment and preparing a dissemination plan John Tann [email protected] Kolkata, June 2011 The Atlas is funded by the Australian Government.

User needs assessment and preparing a dissemination plan

John [email protected], June 2011

The Atlas is funded by the Australian Government under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategyand the Education Investment Fund

The Atlas is funded by the Australian Government under the National Collaborative Research

Infrastructure Strategyand the Education Investment Fund

The Atlas of Living Australia Participants

Council of Heads of Australian Collections of Microorganisms

Principles

• Open access to biodiversity information

• Link users to original data providers

• Support applied use of data

• Adopt and promote international data standards

• Develop open source software components

User Needs study

• 242 email survey responses

• Workshops

• 20 in-depth interviews

• Natural Resource Assessment longitudinal study

• TDWG conference discussion sessions

Email survey responses

Users of biodiversity data

Research Policy andManagement

Technical andApplication

BiologistBotanistCuratorDNA curatorEntomologist Biosecurity officerEthnobotanist Catchment officerIchthyologist Community supportInvasives Researcher Conservation officerMycologist EcologistOrnithologist Environmental consultantPopulation modeller Field naturalistSpatial modeller Fire consultantStatistician HorticulturalistTaxonomic editor Collection manager Information curatorTaxonomist Genetic Resource Manager MediaToxicologist Land use planner MilitaryWeeds researcher Manager Regeneration officerZoologist Reserve manager Restoration ecologist

What biodiversity data do you use?

72

66

47

31

21

14

11

6

6

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

maps, distributions

expert or secondary source, journals, gov't agency, museums, community

animal and plant descriptions, keys

species lists

own data

threatened / endangered species

weeds, ferals, pests, diseases, pathogens

gene

images, videos

% of respondents

Data sources

Example use case

Modelling cassowary habitat

• Uses vegetation maps

• Uses species presence data

• Uses a local expert for species names

• Sends DVD by mail

flickr.com/photos/ajhaverkamp

Major tasks

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

Distribution analysisIdentification

Site assessmentHabitat management planning

Managing referenceCommunity engagement

Fact-finding

Site / region checklistInvasive species analysis

Population monitoringSite selection

Pre-impact checklistTaxonomic revision

Vegetation modellingSynecology / food-web analysis

% of respondents

ALA focus

Workshops

Interviews

Longitudinal study

Workshops

Interviews

Longitudinal study

Names

• What is the current name?

• What is the name of this in other places?

• I only know the common name...

• Is an RSS feed available for name changes?

Sensitive data

• Develop a rules-based Register of Sensitive Species

• Develop a Sensitive Data Service

• Develop a Sensitive Data Toolbox

© Greg Steenbeeke

Amateur data

• Variable quality

• Often have good local knowledge

• Lack professional support

Aseroe rubra Sydney Fungal Studies Group

Desirable characteristics of data

• Current

• Accurate

• Authoritative

• Comprehensive

• Well documented

National Herbarium of New South Wales

Bringing it all together

Implementation

Metadata (source, methods, ownership, access, etc.)

Data (collections, field observations, literature, molecular, images, expert knowledge, etc.)

Metadata repository

Names and Classification

Distribution

Biodiversity Information

Explorer

Regional Atlas

Annotation Tools

Biosecurity Portal

Uses (biosecurity, land-use, climate change, crop development, resource management, education, materials, forensics, taxonomy, etc.)

Links to international

projects

Key goals for ALA

Provide services to integrate information about Australia’s biodiversity:

• Cataloguing biodiversity databases (including specimens, names, sequences, etc.), digital literature, images, and other online resources

• Providing intelligent search interfaces for locating and retrieving these resources

• Integrated handling of specimen and observational data for all taxonomic groups

• GIS services based on the available specimen and observational data

• Simplified models for institutions to share their data

• Reusable web services for nomenclatural and taxonomic information

• Tools for data validation and cleaning, and for handling user comments and feedback

Prioritisation workshop

Questions for workshop participants

1. Are you already involved in any projects or partnerships which could form the basis for a powerful demonstration of what the ALA is trying to achieve (integrating data from multiple sources to address real questions)?

2. Can you suggest any other achievable projects or partnerships which would be worth considering?

3. Can you identify any taxonomic groups for which the network could provide rich and more or less comprehensive data, and for which there are clear user groups with high-profile interests?

4. Do you have any data sets or other information resources which could be integrated by the ALA (and of which we may still be unaware)?

ALA components

Data Dissemination

Conservation PortalPest Information Portal

Biodiversity Information

Explorer

Citizen Science Portal

Spatial Data Management

Spatial Toolkit

Biological Data Cache

Environmental Data Store

Collection Data Management

Field Capture of Metadata

Accession Processing

Digitisation and Imaging Support

Database Integration Wrappers

Integrated Data Sets

OZCAM AMRiN

AVH APPD

OBIS

ALA Project Office

Australian National Checklists

Web Services and User Interfaces

Completed National

Checklists (AFD, APC, etc.)

Community Editing and

Workflow Tools

Directory of Taxonomic Expertise

Legislative and Thematic Lists

Data Integration

Ontologies and Vocabularies

Quality Control and

Sensitive Data Tools

Metadata Repository

Annotation Services

User Authentication

and Identity Management

Rich Data Stores

Species Interactions

Sequences (BOLD)

Digital Literature (BHL)

Descriptive Data

(IdentifyLife)

Images (MorphBank)

Spatial Portal(Web GIS)