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III GBIF Georeferencing ...

III GBIF Georeferencing Training Workshop

Organised jointly by the GBIF Secretariat and the Spanish GBIF Node

DEADLINE for applications: Thursday 3rd April 2008
(Applications are to be submitted to Heads of GBIF Delegations, and only by them to GBIFS)

GBIF is pleased to announce the THIRD EDITION of its TRAINING WORKSHOP ON GEOREFERENCING, to be held at the Royal Botanical Garden (CSIC), Madrid (Spain), from the 5th to the 8th May 2008. The workshop will be conducted in English.

Presentation

The process of adding detailed geographic information (georeferencing) and developing an associated estimate of uncertainty for the locality information from species occurrence data is a time consuming and expensive undertaking. Nevertheless, this specific information is needed to perform advanced spatial analysis like ecological niche modelling or other mapping functionalities.

Within the last few years new approaches, tools and technologies have been developed to facilitate the georeferencing process. In this regard, please consult:

Chapman, A.D. and J. Wieczorek (eds). 2006. Guide to Best Practices for Georeferencing. Copenhagen: Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Available at http://www.gbif.org/prog/digit/Georeferencing/

The workshop will follow a similar structure and curriculum as previous editions:

1. Buenos Aires – Argentina, March 2007, http://olla.berkeley.edu/ornisnet/?q=node/16.
2. Tervuren – Belgium, December 2006, http://www.herpnet.org/gbif/gbif.html.

This workshop is targeted at participants who are professionally involved with georeferencing. Thus, the involvement of participants in georeferencing activities should be:

     a) Clearly linked to his/her institutional affiliation.
     b) Part of a biodiversity data digitisation project or initiative.

GBIF is shifting to a more decentralised model and thus strongly promoting knowledge dissemination through the “train the trainers” approach. Participants sponsored by GBIF will be requested to lead at least one training event based in the capacities acquired upon return to their countries/institutions (this may vary from a single conference to a full training course). Please state your specific training plans in the application form provided.

Synergies with other GBIF-related activities (e.g. seed money grants or mentoring projects) will be considered an asset. It is expected that selected participants will help to mobilise georeferenced records through GBIF.

GBIF will cover the travelling expenses (airline tickets economy fare, accommodation and per diem) of the selected international participants coming from GBIF members. These expenses are subject to GBIF travelling rules and regulations. Please consult http://doiop.com/GBIF-travel-rules.

Participants from Spain should address the Spanish GBIF Node directly - http://www.gbif.es/.

Call for applications

GBIF members are invited to submit nominations for this workshop (please look at http://www.gbif.org/GBIF_org/participation for a complete list of current GBIF members). Applications should be submitted by the GBIF head of delegation to atalavan@gbif.org in electronic format (MS word, rtf or pdf). Only in exceptional cases it should be faxed to: + 45 35 32 14 80.

The deadline to submit applications is Thursday 3rd April 2008.

Applications should not exceed 4 pages (N.B. the CV and the support letters are not included in these 4 pages). A standardised application form is herewith provided.

The results of the selection process will be announced during the second week of April 2008.

Should you have any queries about this call, please contact Alberto González-Talaván by email (atalavan@gbif.org), phone (+ 45 3532 1483) or fax (+ 45 3532 1480).

Requirements and conditions

1. This call is open to persons associated with (that is, a resident of a GBIF country, or associated with an organisation that is a GBIF Participant) GBIF members only. A full list of GBIF Participants is provided at http://www.gbif.org/GBIF_org/participation
    
2. Applications must be endorsed and submitted by a GBIF Head of Delegation (or his/her designate). For a full list of (and contact information for) Heads of GBIF Delegations please see:
   http://www.gbif.org/GBIF_org/whoiswho/gb
    
3. The application form can be found following this link.
    
4. Heads of GBIF Delegations can each nominate up to 2 persons (please keep in mind that a maximum of 12 participants will be selected).
    
5. The workshop will be conducted in English.
    
6. Before coming to the workshop, participants should familiarize themselves with the following documents:
1. Spencer, C., Yamamoto, K., Fang, J., Constable, H, Koo, M. and J. Wieczorek, Georeferencing For Dummies: Rough Guide to Georeferencing.
   http://www.herpnet.org/herpnet/documents/georeffordummy.xls
   
2. Chapman, A.D. and J. Wieczorek (eds). 2006. Guide to Best Practices for Georeferencing. Copenhagen: Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
   http://www.gbif.org/prog/digit/Georeferencing/
    
7. Successful applicants will be requested to provide a small dataset from their institutional database in advance of the workshop, as there will be georeferencing examples from these data at the workshop. Please, do not submit data with the application, they will be requested later from successful participants.
   
   Take note that the fields to be added to your databases for georeferencing should include: (Please check the documents mentioned above for field definitions):

English translation of the locality (if you intend to use BioGeomancer) DecLat DecLong Extent Named place MaxError distance MaxError units

LatLongRemarks Locality annotation No georef because Map/gazetteer references Datum OrigCoordSourceType DeterminedbyPerson DeterminationDate