This paper, commissioned by GBIF and authored by Steve Kelling has two purposes:

(a) formally identify the subset of observational data focused on species occurrences; and
(b) describe the particular opportunities offered to further ecological understanding and biodiversity conservation by the special characteristics of these observational datasets on organisms.

While many biodiversity information initiatives have focused on data from specimen collections (a special subset of observation data), this paper focuses on broadening the scope of these endeavours to include all observational data. It further provides an overview of current efforts to organise and provide access to these data, and makes recommendations for better community-wide resource integration. This paper is available freely for download and use.