tdwg / developers Goto Github PK

Or do we? Until there is significant traction and activity I suspect we can just accept PRs once we get a +1, review, or comment to the effect of "I like it", or none of these.

How do people feel about using on of the default options provided by Github?

The Biodiversity Next symposium "Biodiversity Virtual Research Environments: past, present & possible futures" explored avenues of cooperation and coordination for VRE systems.

There was a degree of consensus in the direction of many of these VREs, particularly with many exploring microservice-based frameworks. This could provide a point of collaboration between the systems.

This issue has been created to build upon this consensus and discuss plans for how these systems might be aligned. It is intended to be an open discussion for anyone working with or interested in VREs, so even if you weren't at Biodiversity Next, please feel free to get involved.

A rough roadmap:

VRE Gap Analysis

A good starting point is to understand the extent of overlap in data models and functionality between different VREs. The Natural History Museum London will undertake a gap analysis of current VRE systems, including (so far - please suggest others in the comments below):

• Scratchpads
• TaxonWorks
• PlutoF
• DINA
• EarthCape
• Xper3

Once completed, we will publish this gap analysis - and updates/results will be posted here. If anyone would like to be involved in this paper please comment/contact us.

Common data model

If the gap analysis identifies a level of homogeneity across these systems, this could help inform a common data model and functional requirements for shared services.

Alongside this, we need to know which data standards exist to help inform the model.

• GBIF / EML
• EDIT CDM

Existing frameworks

Are there existing VRE/data frameworks to implement this common data model/service layer? We do not want to reinvent the wheel, and the more abstracted the system - one not limited to biodiversity data - is more resilient to change. Potentially of interest:

• GO FAIR Implementation Network BiodiFAIRse
• VRE4EIC
• SOLID
• FAIR.ReD
• WikiData

What others should be included?

Other initiatives

This initiative has a large overlap with the work of Research Data Alliance VRE Interest Group. At the very least, we need to keep an eye on their outputs and recommendations and probably reach out to them once we have a clearer idea of a plan.

When sifting through large lists of taxa,
I find it helpful to have visual clues about the kind of taxa shown.

Are they insects? Mammals?

After browsing https://npmjs.org some time ago, I failed to find a widget that associates a color and image to a taxon based on their taxonomic hierarchy.

So, I (unfortunately) created a new package https://npmjs.org/taxaprisma .

Does anyone know of a widget that does something similar, so I can retire taxaprisma and use another one instead?

I would suggest 2-3 people, at least 2 of which represent minority groups. Please nominate yourself or others here.