Saarenmaa, H.,  Mergen, P.,  Jacobsen, K.,  Smirnova, L.,  Theeten, F.,  Pe’er, I.,  Ó Tuama, E.,  Penev , L.,  Drucker, D.,  Pezzini, F.,  Magnusson, W.,  Güntsch, A.,  Faulwetter, S.,  Arvanitidis, C.,  Kõljalg, U.,  Abarenkov, K.,  Valland , N.,  Agosti, D.,  Catapano, T.,  Morris, R.,  Sautter, G. & Wilson, B. 2014. MS231 Specifications of data sharing tools. European Commission : European Biodiversity Observation Network. 59 p.

Report (published)

This document gives an overview of information and knowledge sharing tools currently available for the biodiversity research community and makes recommendations towards the main requirements needed to build new releases of data sharing tools for EU BON data providers. The Description of Work defines the task as follows: “This task will work with international partners (task 2.7) to scope the requirements and build new releases of data sharing tools for relevant data providers. These open source tools implement the selected interoperability mechanisms (task 2.2) and data publishing mechanisms (task 8.5) for use by the relevant networks, and provide registration and query functions towards the GCI. As the basis of development, existing tools for metadata, occurrence data and ecological data from GBIF and LTER will be used. New tools for sharing habitat data will be investigated. A model for distributed development will be adopted. (Lead MRAC; UTARTU, UEF, GBIF, Pensoft, Plazi, GlueCAD, INPA, IBSAS; Months 9-51)” Other existing tools which may be used for data sharing, such as those used by organisations to comply with the requirements of the INSPIRE 1 directive, other GIS related tools and crowdsourcing tools, contribute as well substantially to the community and have been included in this report. However, especially tools for sharing habitat data need to be further investigated and agreed upon.