[PCA] Public working draft of NatureServe Species Occurrence Schema, comments invited

[Kat Maybury]

The following is a message from Douglas Sellers at NatureServe:

 

 

NatureServe is pleased to announce the release of a public working draft
(version 0.3) of an XML schema to describe species occurrence-level data
as reflected in NatureServe's biodiversity data model.  We are seeking
public review and comments on this version until March 3, 2006.
Comments received during the review period will be addressed in the next
release, version 1.0.  

 

NatureServe is evolving its data delivery strategy to use XML-based, Web
services protocols.  Last month the NatureServe Species Schema,
describing species profile-type information managed by NatureServe, and
familiar to many through our NatureServe Explorer website
(www.natureserve.org/explorer), was released for public review.  The
Species Occurrence Schema that is the subject of this announcement is
complementary to that schema, and focuses on describing spatially
explicit species locality data as managed by the NatureServe network.
The data represented by this schema provides a new level of spatial
precision not currently available on NatureServe Explorer. 

 

Our Web services strategy for sharing data among NatureServe network
members and with the broader community is dependent upon the usability
of these XML schemas.  For this reason, we are seeking as wide a review
as possible among our colleagues within the biodiversity informatics
community, and especially from those organizations that regularly rely
on and interact with NatureServe data.  

 

Reviewers are invited to submit comments on either the content or the
structure of the XML documents.  Content reviewers will want to follow
the link for the human-readable documentation.  We have also provided a
sample document for review, which contains example data in XML format
for one species occurrence record of Ardea herodias (Great Blue Heron).


 

Reviewers should also note that this schema incorporates mapped
occurrence location information, represented as polygon shapes.  In
compliance with Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards for web map
and web feature services, the spatial elements of the species occurrence
schema are represented using Geography Markup Language (GML).  In
addition to the human readable documentation, technical reviewers will
find useful the links to the XSD documents.  Technical reviewer comments
may cover the names of the XML tags, the nesting of the XML document,
the structure of the XML schema, and the organization of the GML
components.  Technical reviewer comments from organizations that may
develop applications to consume NatureServe data as expressed by these
XML schema are highly encouraged.

 

The NatureServe Species Occurrence Schema documentation can be found at:
http://services.natureserve.org/technical/speciesOccurrenceSchema.htm

 

Please submit comments using the feedback forms found at the same
location, or via email to:

services at natureserve.org

 

The complementary NatureServe Species Schema documentation can be found
at:

http://services.natureserve.org/technical/speciesSchema.htm 

Reviewers may find it useful to compare the two documents.  While the
public comment period for the species schema has closed, we will
consider new comments as time permits within the schedule for releasing
the next version.  

 

 

 

Kat Maybury

Director, Botany Department

NatureServe

1101 Wilson Blvd., 15th floor

Arlington, VA 22209

703-908-1882

 kat_maybury at natureserve.org <mailto:kat_maybury at natureserve.org> 

www.natureserve.org <http://www.natureserve.org> 

www.natureserve.org/explorer/ <http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/> 

 

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