Public review of GGBN and ABCD-EFG Begins

The ratification process for new TDWG standards entails both expert and public review. Two draft standards have passed expert review and are now ready for public review.

GGBN - Global Genomic Biodiversity Network

The GGBN specification adds vocabulary terms to TDWG’s two standards for organism occurrence data, Darwin Core and Access to Biological Collections Data (ABCD). To learn more about GGBN, see the draft standard page on the TDWG website, where you will find a basic description, as well as links to an introductory article and the actual specification on the TDWG terms wiki.

EFG - Extension for geosciences

The EFG specification extends the ABCD XML Schema Definition by adding elements that are useful for samples that support geoscience research, such as paleontology, sedimentology, petrology, mineralogy, etc. Find the charter for the EFG Task Group on the TDWG website. It includes a brief description of the specification and links to an introductory article and the full specification on the TDWG terms wiki.

Public review

TDWG is now managing the public review of standards on TDWG’s GitHub space. Each of these specifications has its own repository:

• GGBN - https://github.com/tdwg/ggbn
• EFG - https://github.com/tdwg/efg

Post any comments and questions in the respective repository as an “issue” (see below). The authors will do their best to respond promptly, but please be patient, summertime always has its distractions. You need a GitHub account (free) to post an issue, but you don’t need to have any further authorization. If you would like to submit your comment anonymously, please send it as email to the TDWG secretariat. The public reviews will close August 1st.