Meeting Announcement: Biodiversity Informatics, London, 1-3 June 2009 The e-Biosphere 09 International Conference on Biodiversity Informatics (see www.e-biosphere09.org<blocked::http://www.e-biosphere09.org/>) will take place in London on 1-5 June 2009. The Conference organizers take a broad view of "biodiversity informatics" and as a result, the Conference will be devoted to promoting interoperability of diverse data types, including those of interest to ecologists. The conference agenda is designed to:
* Highlight the accomplishments and capabilities of Biodiversity Informatics; * Share information and demonstrations of databases and software; and * Gather input from researchers and users on the directions that Biodiversity Informatics should take in the next 5-10 years. Input from the Conference will go directly into a two-day planning meeting of major Biodiversity Informatics initiatives. This input will inform their R&D roadmap and help them develop priorities for implementation and funding. To enable the communities of researchers and users in Biodiversity Informatics to prepare properly for the Conference, the organizers announce the creation of an Online Conference Community (OCC). The OCC will be a web-based environment in which research and user communities can interact, develop position papers, and prepare for the London conference. In particular, OCC participants are being challenged to: 1. Demonstrate the cutting-edge capabilities for information workflow in each sub-community. How does information currently flow in the ecological sciences, and how fast does it flow? Each sub-community will have an opportunity to give a real-time demonstration during the three-day Conference, starting with field observations and ending in publications, online databases and websites, and aggregators of information. 2. Develop a vision for an ideal information workflow of the future for each sub-community. What data access and interoperability will ecologists need and want 5-10 years from now? The OCC will begin with the following pre-constructed communities (several of which will be relevant to ESA members), but OCC participants will be able to merge and split communities and to form new communities. The initial sub-communities are: * A future road map for Biodiversity Informatics<http://forum.e-biosphere09.org/viewforum.php?f=29> * Ecology and ecosystems, environmental sustainability, climate change<http://forum.e-biosphere09.org/viewforum.php?f=23> * Conservation and land use<http://forum.e-biosphere09.org/viewforum.php?f=4> * Basic biodiversity science research<http://forum.e-biosphere09.org/viewforum.php?f=26> * Cybertaxonomy * Training in biodiversity informatics<http://forum.e-biosphere09.org/viewforum.php?f=27> * Developing world<http://forum.e-biosphere09.org/viewforum.php?f=3> * Sustainable economic development<http://forum.e-biosphere09.org/viewforum.php?f=17> * Agriculture<http://forum.e-biosphere09.org/viewforum.php?f=19> * Forestry<http://forum.e-biosphere09.org/viewforum.php?f=20> * Fisheries<http://forum.e-biosphere09.org/viewforum.php?f=21> * Public Health<http://forum.e-biosphere09.org/viewforum.php?f=22> * Uses in public, K-12 and higher education<http://forum.e-biosphere09.org/viewforum.php?f=25> * Citizen science<http://forum.e-biosphere09.org/viewforum.php?f=28> ==========
