Biodiversity Informatics Network (TDWG)

Overview

Teaching: 30 min
Exercises: 0 min

Questions

• Biodiversity Informatics Network (TDWG)

Objectives

• Understand what TDWG is doing and how it proceed?

TDWG

Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) is a non-profit organization and a community dedicated to developing biodiversity information standards. To achieve its goals, TDWG:

• Develops, ratifies and promotes standards and guidelines for the recording and exchange of data about organisms
• Acts as a forum for discussing all aspects of biodiversity information management through meetings, online discussions, and publications

see TDWG website for more.

Community

TDWG is an open, bottom-up organization. Anyone can become a member, individuals as well as institutions (including government agencies, non-governmental organizations, programs, and projects). Everything TDWG produces comes from the expertise, collaboration, and support of its members - people and organizations who create, manage, integrate, and analyze biodiversity information.

As an example, let’s see the How we developed a Data Exchange Format: Lessons Learned from Camera Trap Data Package (Camtrap DP). Presented by Peter Desmet as part of the TDWG 2023 Hybrid Annual Conference in Hobart, Tasmania.

Standards

Darwin Core is a standard maintained by the Darwin Core Maintenance Interest Group.

What is Darwin Core, and why does it matter?

The Darwin Core Standard (DwC) offers a stable, straightforward and flexible framework for compiling biodiversity data from varied and variable sources.

Conferences

TDWG annual conferences provide a showcase for state of the art biodiversity informatics, much of which relies on the standards created by TDWG and other organizations. Our conferences also provide a forum for developing, refining, and extending our standards in response to new challenges and opportunities.

Key Points

• TDWG community

• TDWG standards

• TDWG conferences