1. Organising data to represent biodiversity
Donald Hobern, GBIF Executive Secretary

2. Personal Background MA in Classics, Christ Church, Oxford
– IBM UK and New Zealand
Software developer and architect
– Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat
Programme Officer for Data Access and Database Interoperability
Head of Informatics
– CSIRO, Canberra
Director, Atlas of Living Australia
Chair, Taxonomic Databases Working Group
2012- – Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat
Executive Secretary

3. Research Areas/Interests
Ensure free and open access to all sources of biodiversity data in structured forms
Uses of biodiversity data
Taxonomy, conservation, biosecurity, land-use planning, climate change response, crop development, resource management, materials development, forensics …
Collaborators
Environment Ministry
Science Ministry
Agriculture Ministry
Local Government
Museums
Herbaria
Universities
Public
...
Sources of biodiversity data
Collections, field observations, monitoring activities, genomics, citizen science, remote sensing, expert knowledge, historical literature, ...

4. Research Areas/Interests
Provide organised access to integrated species distribution data

5. Research Areas/Interests
Support mapping and monitoring of biodiversity patterns in space and time

6. Links to „Computer Science meets Ecology“
Obtaining and preserving data
Need interoperable standards for all categories and streams of data
Need low-complexity tools and processes to mobilise data
Need incentives for all communities to share data openly
Pattern-recognition in highly dimensional and geo-tagged data sets
Need robust linkages to species traits, environmental data, etc.
Need mechanisms for determining resolving power of available data for detecting patterns in space and time
Model development and model-data-confrontation
Need priorities for data mobilisation and for derived data products
Need robust and scalable models for combining signals from available observations, taxonomic and environmental covariables, etc.