Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
SlideShare a Scribd company logo

Biodiversity Informatics at the Natural History Museum

•Download as PPTX, PDF•
•
Edward Baker
Edward Baker

The document discusses biodiversity informatics at the Natural History Museum. It notes that the museum has over 70 million specimens collected over 400 years and 350,000 books in its collection. It emphasizes the importance of digitizing this collection data and making it accessible online through tools for data publication and management. This allows data to flow from collection, to curation, to various uses, and ultimately to reuse by others through publication and republication of research. It addresses challenges around scale and finding relevant data across thousands of collections. Solutions discussed include the museum's data portal and efforts to aggregate data globally and make content openly available on Wikipedia.

1 of 27
Biodiversity Informatics at the Natural History Museum Ed Baker Terrestrial Invertebrates, Department of Life Sciences & NHM Informatics Initiative http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.722897
Science as a Slow Cooker • Only the surface visible • Lid kept on for extended periods of time • Uses cheap cuts of raggy meat • Ingredient lose their nutritional value • Children at risk due to high temperatures http://ispiders.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/realtime-web.html
We like data • 70 million+ specimens collected over 400 years • 350,000+ books • ??? Unpublished datasets in archive, notebooks, computers • ??? In the minds of staff
How do we provide access? • Digitisation of specimens and associated data • Scanning and transcribing books, journals, archives • Providing tools for managing the data life cycle • Changing the way we publish: data publication
Flowing Data Publication Collection Curation Use
Flowing Data Collection Curation Somebody retires Somebody dies Project is cancelled Sits in desk drawer or on a hard drive until….
Flowing Data Collection Curation Use Data Publication Re-use Publication Re-use Re-use Re-use
Flowing Data: from collection to reuse Collection Curation Use Data Publication Re-use Publication Re-use Re-use Re-use
Collection Citizen Science Automated identification and monitoring Traditional taxonomic sources
Flowing Data: from collection to reuse Curation Use Data Publication Re-use Publication Re-use Re-use Re-use
Curation Websites for communities to publish and curate: • Taxonomy / nomenclature • Bibliographies • Specimen information • Character matricies
Flowing Data: from collection to reuse Use Data Publication Re-use Publication Re-use Re-use Re-use
Use: Oboe
Use: Oboe
Flowing Data: from collection to reuse Data Publication Re-use Publication Re-use Re-use Re-use
Publication (Data) • Datasets • Single species descriptions • Checklists • Software
Flowing Data: from collection to reuse Re-use Publication Re-use Re-use Re-use
Publication (Research) • Traditional research • Systematic zoology • Phylogeny • Biogeography
Flowing Data: from collection to reuse Re-use Re-use Re-use Re-use
The Problem of Scale Data is being generated by tens of thousands of researchers, in thousands of institutions • Hard to find what you need • Hard to know if what you need actually exists • Impossible to go through researcher by researcher
NHM Data Portal • Aggregator for NHM science data • Visualisation tools for datasets • Allows export of NHM data for re-use
The Informatics Landscape >18K specimen records (local small scale coverage) >276M specimen records (worldwide coverage)
The Informatics Landscape A webpage for every species Aggregate specimen and observation data globally
Wikimedian in Residence • Make NHM content available under open licenses for use on Wikimedia projects (and elsewhere) • Reach of Wikipedia: BBC, Encyclopedia of Life • Wikisource: Transcription and translation crowd-sourcing
Flowing Data: from collection to reuse ?
"Everybody makes mistakes. And if you don't expose your raw data, nobody will find your mistakes." Jean-Claude Bradley http://bit.ly/146ugIv
Biodiversity Informatics at the Natural History Museum

More Related Content

Biodiversity Informatics at the Natural History Museum

  • 1. Biodiversity Informatics at the Natural History Museum Ed Baker Terrestrial Invertebrates, Department of Life Sciences & NHM Informatics Initiative http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.722897
  • 2. Science as a Slow Cooker • Only the surface visible • Lid kept on for extended periods of time • Uses cheap cuts of raggy meat • Ingredient lose their nutritional value • Children at risk due to high temperatures http://ispiders.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/realtime-web.html
  • 3. We like data • 70 million+ specimens collected over 400 years • 350,000+ books • ??? Unpublished datasets in archive, notebooks, computers • ??? In the minds of staff
  • 4. How do we provide access? • Digitisation of specimens and associated data • Scanning and transcribing books, journals, archives • Providing tools for managing the data life cycle • Changing the way we publish: data publication
  • 6. Flowing Data Collection Curation Somebody retires Somebody dies Project is cancelled Sits in desk drawer or on a hard drive until….
  • 7. Flowing Data Collection Curation Use Data Publication Re-use Publication Re-use Re-use Re-use
  • 8. Flowing Data: from collection to reuse Collection Curation Use Data Publication Re-use Publication Re-use Re-use Re-use
  • 9. Collection Citizen Science Automated identification and monitoring Traditional taxonomic sources
  • 10. Flowing Data: from collection to reuse Curation Use Data Publication Re-use Publication Re-use Re-use Re-use
  • 11. Curation Websites for communities to publish and curate: • Taxonomy / nomenclature • Bibliographies • Specimen information • Character matricies
  • 12. Flowing Data: from collection to reuse Use Data Publication Re-use Publication Re-use Re-use Re-use
  • 15. Flowing Data: from collection to reuse Data Publication Re-use Publication Re-use Re-use Re-use
  • 16. Publication (Data) • Datasets • Single species descriptions • Checklists • Software
  • 17. Flowing Data: from collection to reuse Re-use Publication Re-use Re-use Re-use
  • 18. Publication (Research) • Traditional research • Systematic zoology • Phylogeny • Biogeography
  • 19. Flowing Data: from collection to reuse Re-use Re-use Re-use Re-use
  • 20. The Problem of Scale Data is being generated by tens of thousands of researchers, in thousands of institutions • Hard to find what you need • Hard to know if what you need actually exists • Impossible to go through researcher by researcher
  • 21. NHM Data Portal • Aggregator for NHM science data • Visualisation tools for datasets • Allows export of NHM data for re-use
  • 22. The Informatics Landscape >18K specimen records (local small scale coverage) >276M specimen records (worldwide coverage)
  • 23. The Informatics Landscape A webpage for every species Aggregate specimen and observation data globally
  • 24. Wikimedian in Residence • Make NHM content available under open licenses for use on Wikimedia projects (and elsewhere) • Reach of Wikipedia: BBC, Encyclopedia of Life • Wikisource: Transcription and translation crowd-sourcing
  • 25. Flowing Data: from collection to reuse ?
  • 26. "Everybody makes mistakes. And if you don't expose your raw data, nobody will find your mistakes." Jean-Claude Bradley http://bit.ly/146ugIv