GBIF Position Paper on Future Directions and Recommendations for Enhancing Fitness-for-Use Across the GBIF Network.

Primary biodiversity data can be used for multiple purposes by various user communities worldwide.  Assessing and enhancing fitness for use of data is therefore critical. With the aim of providing a long term vision to address this issue, the GBIF Position Paper on Future Directions and Recommendations for Enhancing Fitness-for-Use across the GBIF Network is now released for community uptake.

Authored by Dr’s A. W. Hill, J. Otegui, A. H. Arino and R. P. Guralnick, the Position Paper makes specific recommendations on: (a) encouraging geo-referencing practices, (b) improving data filters, (c) record level annotations, (e) use of cloud based infrastructures, and (f)collaborations with other players.

The Position Paper foresees that new analytical methods could greatly facilitate assessing and reporting a record’s fitness-for-use. The adoption of technologies such as cloud computing could speed up data cleaning operations. It further observes that increased publication of data from novel sources, such as field studies, will generate a need for technologies we have not yet considered. It calls upon the community uptake of recommendations in a prioritised and coordinated manner as soon as possible.

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Suggested Citation:
GBIF. 2010. GBIF Position Paper on Future Directions and Recommendations for Enhancing Fitness-for-Use Across the GBIF Network, version 1.0. authored by Hill, A. W., Otegui, J., Ariño, A. H., and R. P. Guralnick. 2010. Copenhagen: Global Biodiversity Information Facility, 25 pp. ISBN: 87-92020-11-9. Accessible on-line at http://www.gbif.org.