HISCOM AGM 2016 Brisbane

= Meeting Location = FM Bailey Room, Queensland Herbarium, Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens, Mount Coot-tha Road, Toowong.

= AGENDA =

Attendees
Gillian Brown (BRI), Aaron Wilton (CHR), Ben Richardson (PERTH), Anne Fuchs (CANB), Niels Klazenga (MEL), Donna Lewis (DNA - Chair), Wayne Cherry (NSW), Michael Hope (ALA), Ainsley Calladine (AD), Eleanor Crichton (AD), Simon Checksfield (CSIRO), Ryonen Butcher (ALA CCC), Alison Vaughan (MEL- via teleconference)

Apologies
Laurence Paine (HO), Ian Cowie (Deputy Chair - CHAH)

Welcome and Institution Updates

 * CSIRO (Simon Checksfield): Pilot Collective Access project underway. Business Case was finalised in Jan 2016 to build new system - 6 databases across CSIRO. Business Case is with the Executive at present to sign off hopefully by end of 2016. The proposal is to build the system and provide support. Insect Collection will be the first one developed, followed by the preserved collections - both of these collections are the biggest and are co-funded. CANB and CNS will be included in this. A Digital Strategy for National Collections has been prepared and is with the Executive for signing.
 * AD (Ainsley/Eleanor): Transition to Specify. ADHerb deliver from Specify. Everything else will remain as is i.e. BioCASe Provider.
 * BRI (Gillian Brown): Gillian is the new HISCOM and MAHC rep for BRI. Her position is Principal Botanist and Collections Manager. BRI uses Oracle database forms. HerbRECS needs rejuvenation as well as QLD Wildnet. The Dept. is upgrading Java which will break the Herbarium database, therefore BRI needed to roll-back to a previous version of JAVA. There is currently an IT audit which is scoping the options and look at implementing a new system late 2017. Currently there are many work-arounds in using HerbRECS. BRI feed data to the ALA via Wildnet which pushes data out every 6 months and only QLD records are included and doesn't include cultivated or doubtfully naturalised records. Images are managed in iMatch in which there is a verified option which can match vouchered specimens to the database. This can enable the flagging of images for eFlora.
 * CANB (Anne Fuchs): Recruitment to replace Greg's position. Working away on NSL. APII and KWIKPIK are in legacy software, needs to find replacement image management sw. Living Collections dbase is business as usual. CANB are imaging floral cards and some sheets using the Leaf Aptus Camera (12,000 in total) - they will eventually be available through APII. Digital assets management system will be used for object-level identifications and each image will get its own DOI.
 * CHR (Aaron Wilton): Business as usual. NZFlora, eFlora and eFauna - re-analyse data pipeline. Now responsible for NZOR - funding required, drafting funding proposals and big funding opportunities. Rewritten rules and improved architecture. Adopting ALA infrastructure for a node, mobilising data generally. A senior botanist has left and is being filled with a junior (Jessie Prebble), resulting in Aaron being responsible for Plant Systematics as well as Informatics.
 * DNA (Donna Lewis): Recently appointed Senior Botanist, Technician under contract but working towards advertising the position permanently to assist Collections Manager. Launched MacDonnell Ranges Flora within the Flora NT electronic flora. This is a LUCID Key that sits on the Key Server and was funded by Bush Blitz Applied Taxonomy Grant. Currently preparing Business Case to upgrade the Taxon Table in HOLTZE and dynamically link it to the Dept.'s Vegetation Site Database. Ongoing population of data to flora, conservation and ethno-botany modules in the HOLTZE Specimen Database. Images stored on a Doc repository and are linked to a Taxon ID and visible through Flora NT fact sheets. Future work to link images to vouchered specimens.
 * MEL (Niels Klazenga): VicFlora was launched. Dept. is being approached at present to source funding for Fungi. Bit of work happening with the image database (Cumulus image integration package) - c. 10,000 images, no metadata, no licensing system; significant amount of work. Niels is working on KeyBase, Moss and Fungi data whilst contracted with the ALA 3 days p/week.
 * NSW (Wayne Cherry): Underwent a restructure recently which saw significant turnover of staff and the recruitment of two botanists and collections manager. Looking towards moving the database EMU to a virtual environment next FY. Currently focusing on data cleaning.
 * PERTH (Ben Richardson): Major system migration, 6 years old and moving to virtual machines - 50% completion, 100% of Ben's time at PERTH. 1/2 time on ALA business (12 month contract). Future work at PERTH to move old hardware to new hardware, then to upgrade apps including ImageBank (55,000 source images) to FloraBase (copyright - monetary gains; copyrights need updating for ALA use).
 * ALA (Michael Hope): A few developers down, however there is recruitment of new developers. Hannah Scott has been appointed the new Communications Officer. New Business Analyst starting Nov. 2016 to conduct light project management tasks and assist with identifying priorities. Peter Doherty's position will be replaced (after 12 months) as an Assistant Director and Operations Manager role.

Minutes and actions from previous meetings

 * http://hiscom.rbg.vic.gov.au/wiki/HISCOM_Teleconference_July_2016
 * http://hiscom.rbg.vic.gov.au/wiki/Action_items_October_2015

Actions carried forward from Hobart AGM 2016.

Action 1: Circulate images for AVH homepage to MAHC and HISCOM and add additional images for the AVH launch (Alison).

As a result of action 1, HISCOM requires a mechanism to share images for HISCOM and MAHC to preview. It was agreed that share account on Google Drive was appropriate.

Action 2: Set up a share account on Google Drive for HISCOM (Aaron/Alison?).

Elected Positions

 * Chair: Donna Lewis
 * Assistant Chair: Ben Richardson
 * Deputy Chair (and CHAH Rep.): see recommendation to CHAH in ACTION 1 below.
 * Technical Coordinator: Niels Klazenga
 * AVH User Liaison: Eleanor Crighton, Alison Vaughan. Niels Klazenga and Nick dos Remedios also respond to the more technical inquiries. Aaron is already on the list for when NZ inquiries come through.

Action 3: Recommendation to CHAH that Deputy Chair position is not required and from this point forward the local CHAH rep be invited to future HISCOM meetings to provide a CHAH update (Donna).

HISCOM ToR
The HISCOM ToR 2014 (current) were briefly reviewed. Recommendation to remove the position Deputy Chair, who is a member of CHAH. Instead, invite the local CHAH rep to future HISCOM AGMs to provide a CHAH update and attend sessions that are appropriate. It was proposed to reduce the 'Projects' section so it is more general.

Action 4: Review and amend the HISCOM ToR (current 2014) and circulate to HISCOM for input. Recommendation to CHAH to endorse changes to the HISCOM ToR (Donna).

CHAH Update from October 2016 teleconference (Ryonen Butcher)
eFlora update - in testing phase, uploaded a number of small FoA families. Decadal plan update. NCRIS roadmapping - over 400 submissions. Sue Fyfe - Names in November workshop. ALA Science Symposium - May 2017 Canberra and proposed next Biological Collections workshop. NZOR - close to pushing button. Sensitive species GPI images are all exposed on JSTOR but issues in AVH (Pina). Bush Blitz update.

ALA Biological Collections Workshop Feb 2016 - summary (Donna Lewis)
Big ideas, plans, vision - from Botanical community (CHAH):

Business as usual: Ongoing delivery of AVH. >75% of Australian herbaria specimens are digitised (100% of Australian vascular plants), but virtually none have images. The herbaria community has invested heavily in having the ALA continue to deliver AVH. ‘Business as usual’ does include ongoing maintenance and modest enhancements of AVH (including resolution of issues around image delivery and delivery of large datasets), as well as improving HISPID standards and exploring value adds (new and exciting uses for existing resources). 1. Names management: implementation of National Species List, maintenance of names list by consensus view; tools for maintaining names. 2. Maintenance and minor upgrades. 3. eFlora platform (finish implementation). 4. Special collections exposure, especially targeting some easy wins (e.g. art work collections that are associated with specimens). 1. Image delivery - Images associated with vouchered specimens, Historical images (specimens imaged over time), Derived images (slides, SEMs etc.), Field images associated with specimens. 2. Taxon resources (unvouchered)- Potential for citizen science, National digitisation initiatives, Assessment of value of imaging, Whole specimen collections. 3. eFlora system in use - Socialising and enhancing taxonomic products for the scientific and enthusiast community, Enhanced webservices for delivering eFlora data. - Finish eFlora of Australia and New Zealand. - Uses of phylogenetic and DNA services through the ALA, including taxon ID by reference sequences (these are things that the public will do in the future). - Trait library for Australian and New Zealand specimens. - Provide biodiversity dataset for every 10km2 grid in Australia and New Zealand – this would involve the consolidation and systematic sharing of data and surveys. Important for assessing landscape changes. - Develop ways of recognising and reporting how taxonomic and collections resources are being used (DOI, LSID). Develop tools for recognising the role of the authors of taxonomic descriptions (‘taxonomic H-index’). Develop metrics that we can generate and track without creating more work! Michelle referred to a fish collection that has developed a method for reporting on use/citation of their collection in annual reporting.
 * Immediate priorities:
 * 12 month priorities:
 * 3 year priorities:
 * 10 years?

ACTIVITY LIST identified by botanical and zoological communities:
 * Image management (12 votes) - Improved delivery and management of images and other forms of multimedia.
 * Digitising our collections (10 votes) - How to promote and support a national digitisation effort (and perhaps even find funding for it).
 * Names management (9 Votes) - Improved management of names and taxonomy lists.
 * Genomic data (7 votes) - How to link to, where to store.
 * Handling of duplicates (5 votes).
 * Foundational infrastructure (4 votes).
 * Annotation services (4 votes) - Annotation of specimen records and other collections-sourced information (e.g. images), working on sustainability of annotations, and improving flow of data into collections.
 * Trait data (4 votes: led by Kevin Thiele) - Management and delivery of trait data (biological information as in EoL trait bank).
 * Species interaction (4 votes) - Management and delivery of species interaction data
 * Field data capture (4 Votes) - Providing/supporting tools for field data capture, so that collection records are “born digital” and we are no longer introducing heritage information into the collections.
 * Virtual Natural History Museum (4 votes) - Creating a virtual museum environment, where a user could query/browse specimens in all collections.
 * Shared virtual taxonomy (4 votes) - Creating a shared virtual taxonomy environment, where people could work on joint projects, share images, character matrices, etc.
 * Literature management/links (2 votes) - Build on Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) to provide more comprehensive literature sources and literature management systems.
 * Collection management (1 vote) - Looking at the possibility of housing/supporting web-based collection management software that could be accessed and used by members of the community.

Email lists (review & discuss options)
Aaron/Ben recommended using GitHub as opposed to the email lists as currently the CHAH, MAHC and HISCOM lists have so much SPAM. Other options were discussed such as BaseCamp, PBWorks but all agree that these wouldn't entirely serve our purposes. Discussed SPAM filters and Google Apps which is $5 per email account per month. Briefly discussed what CSIRO are using.

Action 5: Check what CSIRO are using for their email lists (Michael Hope).

Action 6: Follow-up email lists with Matt and what SPAM filters are being used in CSIRO etc. (Niels).

Action 7: Check with Nicole Fisher (FCIG Chair) and Gen Walker-Smith (Faunal CCC) if they would like to be added to the HISCOM list or be emailed in when appropriate (Ryonen Butcher).

= SESSION 1 - Updates =

GBIF Update (Donna Lewis on behalf of Ursula Smith)

 * Governing Board meeting (GB23) 25-26 October in Brasilia.
 * The draft of the Strategic Plan 2017-2021 will be discussed at GB23. This document establishes the framework for the annual work programmes for the next five years. The five broad overlapping priorities are: Deliver relevant data, Improve data quantity, Fill data gaps, Enhance biodiversity information infrastructure, Empower global network.
 * Biodiversity Information Development programme calls for proposals for funding from the Pacific and the Caribbean - deadline 10 November 2016 for projects starting 2017. HISCOM agreed effort for the return was not worth it.
 * Licensing changes and changes to terms of service: This hasn’t impacted most of the FCIG and HISCOM providers as their datasets are already compliant with the creative commons licenses that GBIF has chosen to implement. The majority of licenses are now CC BY but there are also CC0 and CC BY-NC. Around 82% of occurrence records are CC0 or CC BY. More information: http://www.gbif.org/newsroom/news/implementation-of-licensing-recommendations
 * Updates to Privacy policy, terms of use agreement and data sharing agreement.
 * New search/faceting features: Searching on free text fields, experimental map view of search results has been released. Faceted navigation has been added to the search results allowing users to filter on a wide range of DwC terms, Audubon Core standard is now being supported for images resulting in the number of records with associated images increasing to over 11 million.
 * New Website is currently in beta and will be available sometime soon. Here it is NOW (2nd Nov 2016) http://demo.gbif.org/

TDWG Update (Aaron Wilton)
Constitutional changes, 1 representative from Oceania (Aaron). A Deputy Chair is appointed to streamline succession. A push to get rid of regional representation, the number of regional seats was reduced from 2 to 1. There is an Executive Committee and 5 proposed functional sub-committees. 2 standard reviews. Vocab maintenance recommendation - GGBN - genetic data (overall a big improvement). TDWG being registered as a Not For Profit in the USA. TDWG standard - will it be ratified? TDWG Conferences: Costa Rica Dec 2016, Ottawa (Canada) 2017, Dunedin (NZ) with SPNCH 2018.

FCIG/CHAFC AGM update (Donna Lewis)
FCIG and CHAFC met in Darwin at the Museum and Arts Gallery of the NT 6-7th October 2016. Donna attended both days as the local HISCOM rep. Main points that came out of the meeting: FCIG and CHAFC met jointly for a session to discuss the Nagoya Protocol. Ben Phillips from the Aust. Govt Dept. of Environment dialed in to update the group on Nagoya from a Commonwealth perspective. The group agreed they need to work towards an accepted guideline across the board (herbaria and museums). Whoever takes the lead (i.e. CHAH/CHAFC), then a unified approach be considered. The current approach to Nagoya Protocol is on a 'case by case' basis, code of conduct. If Australia were to ratify, need to provide legal provenance and assurance (was sample legally obtained within its jurisdiction). EU regulations came into force October 2014.
 * Nagoya Protocol
 * TDWG - Paul Flemons no longer a rep. TDWG constitution review - details of the changes are here: http://www.tdwg.org/homepage-news-item/article/new-tdwg-constitution-submitted-for-review/.
 * Multimedia mobilisation - overhauled image management and the display capability with a vote button, up vote and down vote for the quality of the image (not to vote if the idea is correct). FCIG should look towards a standardised/trusted agreement about what images for bump up in the voting scheme.
 * Tissue Data - tissue data has been incorporated into OZCAM, 130,000 tissue records are up-loaded to ALA- this has been the main focus of the group. Discussions around how to handle the data and need to discuss with HISCOM how herbaria handle it.
 * Host/parasite interactions - At the moment there is not a way to link parasite to the host records. ALA is struggling to work out how to deal with the host/parasite interaction. Struggling to find the best Darwin core field/s to use.  Needs a names field in Darwin Core.  Maybe use a similar solution to what has been used in the tissue records.  Margaret Cawsey suggested to work it like how we deal with the blood sample that are taken from birds and then the birds are released. Michael Hope suggested that FCIG set up a new working group to deal with the host parasite stuff with the CCC’s (GW and RB) and MC.  Something FCIG will look at, after the tissue working group has finished.
 * Handling of Duplicates - At the moment trouble with multiple images for one record showing up. Only the primary record is showing up.
 * Bush Blitz - datasetName to identify Bush Blitz and other expeditions.
 * DigiVol - demonstration/ look at DigiVol & Insect Soup’s site on the large screen. The national gallery is getting involved in DigiVol. Trait data – on DigiVol. A way of capturing data from images (e.g. are the adult birds in the nest with juvenile, there the eggs in the next, how many eggs). There are lots of different templates in the DigiVol program that can be used by others to make their own DigiVol project.
 * WeDigBio - Worldwide Engagement for Digitizing Biocollections (WeDigBio) Event, Oct. 20-23. Participants can pick a project in which to participate online (https://www.wedigbio.org/find-a-project) or find an in-person event at museums and universities around the globe (https://www.wedigbio.org/event-list). Last year, thousands of participants from >150 countries completed >50K transcription tasks.
 * Meetings - Leo talked about having another joint meeting with CHAH and HISCOM. Leo suggested that maybe this could happen next year.

HISCOM wiki (Niels Klazenga)
https://github.com/hiscom/wiki Laurence Paine suggested using GitHub for the HISCOM wiki. As a result, Niels provided the above link for HISCOM to view and decide if it was appropriate. ALL agreed it was not suitable to replace the HISCOM wiki nor would it satisfy MAHCs purposes. Niels is happy to keep hosting the HISCOM wiki, however it should be redirected to another server. Simon suggested a few options. CHAH website is hosting Wordpress instance on an ALA server (CSIRO). HISCOM suggestion Google docs for MAHC to share files etc. NOT wiki nor GitHub.

Action 8: Niels to approach system administrators about redirecting HISCOM wiki to another server (Niels).

It was agreed that HISCOM ACTIONS from teleconferences? and AGMs be maintained in GitHub under 'Business'. Ben Richardson and Donna Lewis to coordinate this. See https://github.com/hiscom/business

ALA / AVH Issues (Michael Hope)
Deleting records in the ALA is a manual process. With a full update/harvest, it was discussed to conduct an automated 'delete' for records existing after a full harvest. There were a few issues identified: auto delete of records not touched - what happens to those records? What happens to images associated with records and annotations (they go?) A 'soft delete' should be the paradigm. Is there an option to re-supply the deleted records?
 * Deleting records

QUESTION for HISCOM - why do we want to delete a record? 'de-accessioning'

Action 9: Investigate options for deleting records (Michael Hope).

Currently Ryonen has been looking at detecting duplicate records in the AVH based on Primary Collector, Collector number, date, processed name and coordinates. This is still being tested and collector number is not yet in the mix... However, it raised another question 'DUPLICATE RECORD vs DUPLICATE SPECIMEN. They are two different things and the term is overloaded and poorly explained for users. For collection managers, they want to know the duplicate specimens. Niels suggested to have another field in annotations to say it's a 'duplicate'. There is an assumption that there is a technical solution to detecting duplicate specimens, and there is not. Different data entry practices between herbaria also mask duplicate detection, i.e. collecting number formats (some institutions do/do not include text, e.g. initials, project or site abbreviations), coordinate rounding etc. However, in future collection managers can ensure the following are implemented: catalogue numbers are entered correctly, and the use of bar codes to reduce potential error. The following steps should be implemented: 1. entering and providing data correctly (HISPID clarifies the fields), and 2. post-populate where you can, identify functionality.
 * Duplicate detection

Action 10: Continue testing duplicate detection and investigate other options for being able to detect 'the majority' (Ryonen Butcher, ALA).

Follow-up on 'alerts' is not happening, there is a disconnect in the process. There are also bugs associated with annotations not being received. Where there are changes to a taxon name and geocode, MAHC is wanting to be alerted to these records and corresponding changes. Apparently MAHC / HISCOM prepared 'use cases' years ago. Ryonen will follow up alerts/annotations bug with ALA and ensure all institutions have alerts properly set up and appropriately directed.
 * Alerts

Bush Blitz to be added to filters so that records from expeditions can be easily retrieved.
 * Filters

This has been an ongoing issue in the ALA/AVH. There are several issues reported in GitHub but these have not been followed up. Lists are provided at http://lists.ala.org.au/public/speciesLists. Each jurisdiction has a list, where some lists are out of date. HISCOM discussed whether there was a single operating list for threatened species (conservation status) in Australia. Donna has followed this up and there is no centralised single list; however, a national working group on threatened species is working towards national assessments for threatened species and aligning with EPBC - this is a while off though so we still need to fix the lists from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Anne commented there is an EPBC webpage but the listings are not readily available as a list off the website. Lists are available in the SPRAT database.
 * Threatened Species / Conservation Status

Action 11: Follow-up if there is a centralised single list for threatened species from across Australia that can be used in the AVH - see above partly followed-up (Donna & Ryonen).

Action 12: Follow-up with relevant State/Territory authority on current lists for threatened species - call it 'Conservation Status'. Ensure the list is current on the ALA species list page (ALL).

Action 13: Follow-up issue with displaying Conservation Status in the AVH. Currently there is only 1 field 'Country Conservation' - should be renamed 'Conservation Status' and have the status for the jurisdiction the specimen was collected in (ALA Michael Hope).

AVH Update - data providers (Niels Klazenga)

 * All are delivering apart from HO
 * BRI - don't have BioCASe, provide data as DwC Archive directly to ALA
 * UNE - use Specify, have BioCASe Provider
 * MELU - stopped delivering when Gill left
 * LaTrobe - sent database to Niels
 * WOL - sent CSV file, however requires a lot of work
 * UNSW - migrated to Specify, ready to deliver
 * Southern Cross and Macquarie University - possibility of providing to the AVH

AVH/NZ amalgamation
Outstanding work: New Map following launch:
 * Remove the map from the AVH static pages 'About' AVH.
 * Update logos, Depts links etc. from the 'About AVH' page under 'Participating herbaria'.
 * Data downloads - descriptions and help.
 * Collectory pages - link from AVH-test.
 * Use dynamic map
 * Link to collectory pages from the map

Action 14: Update logos and Dept. links on the 'About AVH' page under 'Participating herbaria' (ALL).

Action 15: Investigate if downloads can be reordered to a default based on HISPID 6.0 classes (Michael Hope).

Action 16: Circulate CHAH logo to HISCOM to update Dept. websites etc. (Ainsley).

Action 17: Check ALA collectory pages are up-to-date (ALL).

Action 18: Help - Using AVH Downloads section needs updating to reflect the new and improved downloads functionality (Donna to amend and provide to Niels to add to static pages).

AVH to production - ready for change over ALA - minor bug fixes. Niels - static pages, map etc.

Action 19: Follow-up minor bug fixes to finalise AVH ready for change over (ALA Michael Hope).

Action 20: Make minor amendments to AVH static pages, remove map, update logo/dept. links, minor edits to Help Pages - Donna to provide (Niels Klazenga).

AVH Launch ideas: Soft and hard launch? IBC China July 2017 (Kevin?)

Annotation Service (Ben Richardson)
ALA Symposium - fine tuning how herbaria deal with annotations. Use Case: Make it easier for curation staff. Catalogue number to search on annotations - annotation queues to identify lists. Niels suggested increasing list of annotation type and noted that technical standard needed - ParentID. There is already an Annotations Service standard available. Simon Checksfield mentioned that Collective Access has an annotations service and will liaise with Ben during development. Wayne was seeking clarification on how annotations on specimens are handled. ALA have been working on annotations and the changes will go to production soon.

Action 21: Chase up any further annotations web services work in the GitHub queue (Michael Hope).

Data quality and usability (Niels Klazenga / Ainsely)
Victorian Biodiversity Atlas was used as an example of data being 'unfit for purpose' due to the geocode uncertainty and fact that only c. 3% of MEL data have the datum. Conversations then went on to discuss Coordinate Uncertainty = sample size and Geocode Precision = i.e. within 10m accuracy and which field to use etc. Bottom line is that if the data isn't there, it simply isn't for existing records. HISCOM therefore proposed the importance of collecting the correct geocode information in the field and ensuring collection managers make sure it is being captured correctly in the institutional database. Collecting guidelines were also discussed - do we provide links from the AVH / CHAH website to State/Territory websites where collecting guidelines already exist? Determine who is using which apps or methods for recording geocode information.

Action 22: Recommendation to CHAH to promote awareness to botanists and the like to collect geocode information correctly in a standardised manner (Donna Lewis).

Discussed the implementation of the new datum GDA2020. All agreed we need to watch this space. (Donna Lewis) There is a national reference working group on this and institutions that manage 'spatial data' should ideally have a representative in their agency. There is a 3 year period to implement the new datum. The NT will be commencing this process from Jan 2017 to GDA2020 (static), then move towards the dynamic datum which is date/time stamped. BACKGROUND - the impetus behind the new datum is because GDA94 won't be fit for purpose in future. Australia is the fastest moving continent in the world and is moving to the NE at 7cm a year. It is also deforming, rotating and has localised distortion.

= SESSION 2 =

HISPID
HISPID Terms http://hiscom.github.io/hispid/terms/ XML Schemas (or first draft) for the HISPID elements are now in https://github.com/hiscom/hispid/tree/master/xsd CMF template, plus instructions on how to use it, in https://github.com/hiscom/avh-biocase

HISCOM tied up and agreed on outstanding GitHub issues. Some vocabs were agreed on but can be extended on if need be at any time. DwCLocationRemarks and DwCHabitat were discussed and it was agreed that both should be kept and mapped to where relevant. DwCdisposition has been added to HISPID and agreed by HISCOM that a vocabulary is required.
 * GitHub Issues outstanding https://github.com/hiscom/hispid/issues

Action 23: Contact Peter Wilson regarding the vocabularies in the Yellow Book for substrate, soil and topography (Donna Lewis).

PDF format to be published. Bits that are missing need to be added to the GitHub HISPID repo https://github.com/hiscom/hispid/issues (i.e. index, references etc).
 * Content/format

Action 24: Add new items to GitHub HISPID repo on bits that need incorporating into the HISPID 6.0 PDF document. All HISCOM members to review, add to GitHub, then vote +1 if they agree on that issue (ALL).

Action 25: Review and add additional content to the HISPID 6.0 PDF document (Intro, Background etc) (Alison Vaughan).

HISPID to be finalised by mid-Nov 2016 in order to promote it at TDWG Dec 2016 in Costa Rica. Mapping to HISPID 6.0 - needs to be bundled up into cmf file and provided to institutions to re-map to. A few options were discussed for providing data to ALA/AVH including the existing BioCASe Providers, some suggested IPT was straightforward - available in GBIF Toolkit DwC zipfile. Given most herbaria are providing through BioCASe Providers, we require a cmf which is HISPID 6.0 (ABCD, DwC, Audubon Core, plus new terms).
 * Implementation

Action 26: Create cmf file for HISPID 6.0 and provide to HISCOM data providers with any relevant instructions (Niels Klazenga).

New terms were discussed and it was proposed these are put forward to TDWG as an extension of DwC.

Action 27: At TDWG Costa Rica 2016, investigate the process for published new HISPID 6.0 terms in DwC (Aaron Wilton).

Present HISPID 6.0 at TDWG 2017, Ottawa Canada. When completed, circulate more widely to herbaria, iDigBio. There were discussions on having a mini press release.
 * Promotion

= SESSION 3 =

National Species List (Anne Fuchs)
Anne commented that the NSL were working to create a tree editor that, theoretically, the state censuses could hang off. This is not ready yet and there are unanswered questions around who would provide and maintain the system. Agreed that whoever owns a list looks after it, but the status of common data (e.g. APNI List) was uncertain - papers are being prepared for CHAH to consider re custodianship. Overall consensus from the group was for the NSL to provide services in order to reduce the effort of duplication in maintaining 2 lists. There was discussion around the Taxon Concept Schema (TCS) which are standards for exchange of nomenclature and taxonomy data (Anne to follow-up as required to determine how publications translate to data). The NSL editor was discussed and the feasibility and availability to organise and fund 'user training'. Workflows were also discussed and improved search interface. Due to Peter being available part time for the calendar year, some features of the NSL has not progressed as quickly as planned. HISCOM agreed we require good 'non-technical' documentation with the NSL.

Action 28: Clarify / bring to CHAHs attention, who is the custodian of the datasets in NSL? HISCOM are of the understanding that this requires ratification from CHAH (Donna Lewis).

= SESSION 4 =

GPI and Images
PERTH and MEL images are available in AVH-test. There are issues with GPI images being loaded due to sensitivities with threatened/sensitive species. All are being encouraged to provide images BUT if certain taxa need to be filtered out, then these lists need to be provided to the ALA species lists page, and its each institution's responsibility to withhold sensitive species images.
 * GPI images to the AVH - status

Action 29: Circulate instructions for GPI images (Ryonen).

Michael recommends nothing greater than 10MB in size.
 * Image mobilisation beyond GPI (AVH, eFlora Platform) - options

Action 30: Summarise requirements for providing images to the ALA/AVH (Gillian, Ryonen).

Action 31: Provide example on GitHub to prepare and deliver images to ALA/AVH i.e. URL, min metadata required (Niels).

Action 32: Encouraged to provide images (vouchered and unvouchered) to ALA/AVH respectively (ALL).

= SESSION 5 =

HISCOM Future Directions

 * Annotations - Ben continues working on annotations workflows. ALA will also push through improvements to the AVH alerts in the next production release.
 * Duplicate detection - Ryonen will continue to work on duplicate detection with the ALA. However, it was recognised that there are two issues and the duplicate issues collection managers are concerned with are different to the users i.e. a duplicate specimen, as opposed to a duplicate record.
 * Data quality/usability - HISCOM to coordinate within their institutions the importance of collecting the correct geocode information, this includes recording the datum. HISCOM are aware of the new datum 2020 coming into play in Australia next year. GDA 2020 will be static, then dynamic which requires a date and ?time. Further discussions will be required when the new datum is implemented.
 * Completion of HISPID 6.0, including publish, implement and communicate it.
 * Ensure delivery of Bush Blitz data to AVH.
 * AVH promotional material, CHAH website.
 * Images - delivery to AVH, both vouchered (AVH) and unvouchered to ALA lists (representative images).
 * Fully web service approach that others can use (Ben).

Next HISCOM AGM (Donna Lewis)
HISCOM proposed meeting in MEL 2017 with a joint MAHC/HISCOM meeting and the possibility of meeting with FCIG.

Action 33: Recommendation to CHAH that HISCOM meet in MEL 2017 with a joint MAHC and FCIG meeting (Donna)

Action 34: Recommendation to CHAH that MAHC and HISCOM meet at CHR in 2018 to coordinate with the SPNCH (The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections) and TDWG (Taxonomic Database Working Group) conference in Dunedin from 25th August to 2nd September 2018 (Donna Lewis, Frank Zich)