1. Canadensys
A Network for Mobilizing Primary
Biodiversity Knowledge
David Shorthouse, Christian Gendreau

2. Canadensys Headquarters
Université de Montréal
Biodiversity Centre

3. Network
11 universities, 2 botanical gardens, 2
museums

4. Goal
Mobilize 3 million specimen
records (20%) by end 2013

5. Canadensys Processes

6. http://www.canadensys.net
https://github.com/Canadensys

8. Carole Sinou
Data Publication Support Professional

9. Canadensys Products

11. Where = georeferencing
What = species identity

15. readraw data
narwhal-
DarwinCore
Processing processor
Archive
insert data
pull from
PostgreSQL
Searchable data ElasticSearch
PostGIS
query
Canadensys
Web app Windshaft
Explorer

16. narwhal-processor
Goal Standardize data for optimal retrieval
• Geography (continent, country, coordinates …)
• Dates (different formats, partial dates)
• Numerics (allowintervalsearch)
• Scientificnames (atomize, aggregate)

17. Geospatialstack
Windshaft Mapnik 2.1 Postgis 2.0
• Nodejs • Map render • Handles
TileServer • Used by complex
• Made by OpenStreetMap geospatial
Vizzuality and query
OpenSource • Allow clustering

18. Integrate Publishing Toolkit 2.0.4
• http://code.google.com/p/gbif-providertoolkit/
• Permits management, administration, publishing of
occurrence, checklist, metadata resources
– Create metadata (Ecological Metadata Language, eml.xml)
– Map resource to DarwinCore and optional extensions
• Register resources with GBIF
• RSS feed for changes (eg updates) in resources

19. Limulus
polyphemus
Kiwa
hirsuta
Trypanosoma
brucei
Aa
aleacea
Homo sapiens
Pieris
rapae
Pieris
japponica
Osedax Bahumbugi
frankpressi
Kingiaaustralis

20. The problem with scientific names
• No comprehensive catalog of species
• Names ≠ species
• The species problem – species concepts
• Competing classifications / phylogenies
• Many names for one taxon
• One name for many taxa
• ‘Names’ are more than code-compliant scientific names

21. A working solution
• Inclusive
– Accommodate alternate perspectives
• Reconciliation
– Map names among and between each other
• Disambiguation
– Context to assign homonymic names to rightful place

22. Current Activities

23. Proposition

24. www.canadensys.net
david.shorthouse@umontreal.ca
christian.gendreau@umontreal.ca
@canadensys
David Shorthouse, Christian Gendreau