The staff from the cybertaxonomy team of the RMCA is hired as a contractor providing services related to the digitisation and on-line publishing of biodiversity data to external partners. This expertise encompasses the development of software, the production of data as well as the co-organisation and contribution to training sessions in Belgium and abroad. In the past 2 years the RMCA has been involved in the following activities:

 Development of TapirBuilder:

 http://tapir.tdwg.org/builder/.

TAPIR (TDWG Access Protocol for Information Retrieval) has been developed by Renato De Giovanni from the TDWG (Biodiversity Information Standards formally known as Taxonomic Database Working Group) as a technical protocol for the querying and exchange of biodiversity data on the Internet in a standardized way. TAPIR defines a common syntax for search queries and lists of results that can be shared by several networks and projects mobilising biodiversity data at global level. It allows the storage and retrieval of data in a semi-decentralised way and provides the technical backbone of many networks and projects that share ecological data on the Internet, such as the GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) and the HerpNET (for the publishing of information on reptilians) project to which the RMCA contributes. TAPIR documents are complex structures in XML format and for that reason can be difficult to read and write by a human user. In 2008 the RMCA has been commissioned by the TDWG to develop TapirBuilder: a web application which features a graphical interface easing the building of complex queries and lists of results by a human user. The documents produced by TapirBuilder can immediately be parsed by a provider of data compliant with the standard after their production.

 Contribution to the organisation of the GBIF-CEPDEC training scheme in Tanzania.

From the 13th to the 17th July 2009, the RMCA has been contacted by the GBIF secreatariat to co-organise and act as the main training provider during a workshop by the Tanzania Biodiversity Information Facility (TanBIF). The programme covered the different aspects of a biodiversity digitisation project, from the planning phase to the different stages of execution. The objectives to achieve with the course were a better resource and data management and the publication of those on the internet using mechanisms such as the GBIF Network. The course had a regional capacity building component and 30 representatives from Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda took part in it. This was one of the training activities included in the CEPDEC–Tanzania pilot project. More information can be found in the TanBIF Portal: http://www.tanbif.or.tz/.
Material and expertise gained by contributing to this course has been also used during a training session on the same subject in French language, organized by the RMCA in June 2010 in Kinshasa within the framework of the CABIN project.