International Digitization Summit

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Digitizing the Past and Present for the Future
Quick Links for International Digitization Summit
Agenda
Report

Overview

ALA, CSIRO, iDigBio, Smithsonian, BMNH, Naturalis, and NSF are meeting in Canberra, Australia, April 13-17, 2015, to discuss all projects and potential for collaborations among the projects.

Agenda, Presentations, and Notes

The following is a link to the full agenda: Media:Agenda_International_Digitization_Summit.pdf

Monday, 13 April 2015 :: A Global Focus

8:30-9:00	Coffee and Welcome
Session 1	Introductions - Global Institutions Digitisation program and future Moderator: John La Salle
9:00-9:10	Opening and introductions : John La Salle
9:10-9:30	iDigBio : Larry Page
9:30-9:50	Chinese Field Museum : Keping Ma
9:50-10:10	The Smithsonian Institution : Paul Kimberly
10:10-10:30	The Natural History Museum : Vince Smith
10:30-11:00	Morning Tea
Session 1 continued	Introductions - Global Institutions Digitisation program and future Moderator: John La Salle
11:00-11:20	CSIRO National Research Collections Australia : Andrew Young
11:20-11:40	Atlas of Living Australia : John La Salle
Session 2	Pathways to Collaboration group discussion Moderators: Larry Page & John La Salle
11:40-12:30	How can we learn from international digitsation efforts for potential collaborations and sharing? Discussion will examine how ALA and iDigBio capabilities might collaborate more closely in the future to deliver integrated data and services that are needed by stakeholder communities and other international groups involved in large scale digitisation projects - China, Smithsonian, BNHM, Naturalis and CSIRO’s NRCA.
12:30-13:15	Lunch
13:15-14:00	Tour of Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC) with David Yeates
Session 2 continued	Pathways to Collaboration group discussion Moderators: Larry Page & John La Salle
14:00-15:30	Discussion to consider: Capability we should be accessing via collaboration rather than building ourselves separately? What are the key future priorities? What ideas to work on in the future? Does a need and an opportunity exists to further conceptualise and develop international together, to frame components that will fully support the broad definition of biodiversity research that coordinates and integrates with existing infrastructure, including tools developed by individuals?
15:30-16:00	Afternoon Tea
16:00-16:45	Tour of Australian National Herbarium (ANH) with Andrew Young
16:45-17:00	Return to Lecture Theatre for wrap-up and closing
17:00	Close

Tuesday, 14 April 2015 :: Showcase Day

Introduction

8:30-9:00	Coffee and Welcome
Session 1	Global Digitisation Moderator: John La Salle
9:00-9:15	Opening speaker and remarks – Malcolm Thompson
9:15-9:30	Larry Page: Overview of iDigBio, its genesis, development, funding and future
9:30-9:45	Keping Ma: Chinese Field Museum
9:45-10:00	Vince Smith: NHM Digital Collections Programme and the NHM Data Portal
10:00-10:15	Paul Kimberly: Smithsonian Institution Natural History Museum (Rapid Capture Approach)
10:15-10:30	Andrew Young: CSIRO National Research Collections Australia: Digitisation Strategy & future direction
10:30-10:45	John La Salle: Atlas of Living Australia
10:45-11:15	Morning Tea
Session 2	Global Digitisation continued Moderator: Larry Page
11:15-11:30	Pam Soltis: Role in advancing scientific research with digitized data
11:30-11:45	Greg Riccardi: iDigBio's role in facilitating and enabling digitization
11:45-12:00	Jose Fortes: Cyberinfrastructure, portal and data
12:00-12:15	David Jennings: Digitization project management
12:15-12:30	Austin Mast: Public participation and citizen science management
12:30-12:45	Gil Nelson: Community building, digitization workflow development, training and product workshops
12:45-13:00	Bruce MadFadden: iDigBio - Education and outreach
13:00-13:45	Lunch
Session 3	Australian Digitisation Initiatives Moderator: Paul Kimberly
13:45-14:00	Rebecca Pirzl: Building an E-Flora
14:00-14:15	Paul Flemons: Engaging communities with DigiVol
14:15-14:30	Daniel Gledhill: X-ray images of fishes
14:30-14:45	Alexis Tindall: Community coordination for Australian herbaria
14:45-15:00	Alison Vaughan: Community coordination for the Australian zoological collections
15:00-15:15	Nicole Fisher: International Drawer Digitisation Initiatives and Future
15:15-15:45	Afternoon Tea
Session 4	Moving Digitisation Forward Moderator: John La Salle Introduction
15:45-16:00	Simon Checksfield : A combined information management system for the National Biological Collections
16:00-16:15	Andreas Zwick : Collection genomics
16:15-16:30	BPA: Genomics Data / platforms for digitising collections
16:30-16:45	Graham Galloway (Andrew Janke) : National Imaging Facility supporting specimen imaging
16:45-17:00	Changming Sun : Feature extraction from imaging libraries
17:00-17:15	Stuart Anderson and Matt Adcock : Extracting information from 3D images
17:15-17:30	CLOSING COMMENTS and DISCUSSION
17:30	Close

Wednesday, 15 April 2015 :: Round Table Discussions Day 1

Sessions aimed at initiating conversations to facilitate represented digitisation projects world-wide in finding effective cooperative and collaborative strategies benefiting all parties going forward. Please come with ideas and methods ready for involvement.

8:30-9:00	Coffee and Welcome
Session 1	Global Collections: Advancing Scientific Research Moderators: Pam Soltis, Keping Ma & John La Salle
9:00-9:10	Pam Soltis – Introductory presentation
9:10-10:30	Round Table Discussion: Digitising collections is not enough, you must make it known and available for searching and use. The potential now exists to capitalise on this global massive investment in biodiversity so as to enable new science. Bioinformatics/Digitisation is being perceived as a replacement for, rather than an aid to, systematic expertise, where collection curation has been disconnected from researchers. This topic envisages support of an international coordinating effort for collection digitisation research that would see to digitise collections for global impact across multiple institutions to address specific research questions. Integrating the process or products of digitisation into research needs to be capable of dealing with projects that are focused on 1) collection of the data, and 2) research use of this data. Additional resources: Mind map of discussion Example plots flowering
10:30-11:00	Morning Tea
Session 1 continued	Global Collections: Advancing Scientific Research Moderators: Pam Soltis, Keping Ma & John La Salle
11:00-11:10	Keping Ma - Advancing Digitised Data for Scientific Research in China
11:10-12:30	Round Table Discussion - continued
12:30-13:30	Lunch
Session 2	Cyberinfrastructure Moderators: Jose Fortes, Greg Riccardi & Peter Doherty
13:30-13:40	Jose Fortes – Introductory presentation
13:40-15:00	Round Table Discussion: Significant cyberinfrastructure development has already seen advancement in the mobilization of biological collections data, and further positioning to be transformed by investment and collaborative efforts of organisation at international level. The mobilization and engagement of the ecological and evolutionary data associated with specimen collections is a grand challenge for the 21st Century with the development of cyberinfrastructure to promote efficient and standardised capture and mobilisation.
15:00-15:30	Afternoon Tea
Session 3	Workflow – the heart of successful digitization programs Moderators: Gil Nelson and Vince Smith
15:30-15:40	Gil Nelson – Introductory presentation
15:40-17:00	Round Table Discussion: One of the most significant challenges facing the digitisation effort of biological collections is the design and implementation of complex workflows, which can vary significantly across different taxonomic types and sizes of collections and which need to adapt to collection management logistics unique to each institution. Much work has been done with developing workflows and protocols at the museum and collections level, but few of these workflows have been documented or made available to the larger collections community. iDigBio, is establishing an online repository for sharing existing customized workflows from as many collection types and institutions as possible. Here we offer the beginnings of the repository and encourage those in the community to both discuss the workflows, and to contribute to this resource by adding new workflows and updating existing workflows. Efficient and effective workflows are at the heart of any successful biological collections digitisation. Through unified efforts we envisage involving the creation of a publicly available, sustainable and comprehensive national and international collections information resource of digitisation workflows and protocols. Additional resources: Vince Smith - Moving beyond the box: automating the digitization of insect collections Rod Eastwood - Efficient removal of insect specimen pin labels with modified forceps
17:00	Close

Thursday, 16 April 2015 :: Round Table Discussions Day 2

Sessions aimed at initiating conversations to facilitate represented digitisation projects world-wide in finding effective cooperative and collaborative strategies benefiting all parties going forward. Please come with ideas and methods ready for involvement.

8:30-9:00	Coffee and Welcome
Session 4	WeDigBio—Worldwide Engagement for Digitizing Biocollections Moderators: Austin Mast, Paul Flemons, Paul Kimberly
9:00-9:10	Paul Kimberly, Paul Flemons, Austin Mast—Introduction to WeDigBio, an Example of International Collaboration
9:10-10:30	Round Table Discussion: Online transcription centres, such as Notes from Nature, DigiVol, the Smithsonian Institution’s Transcription Center and Les Herbonautes, provide a means by which the public can contribute to digitisation of biocollections in ways and at scales that were previously not possible. WeDigBio, an event of global mass digitisation planned for October 2015 and annually thereafter, will capitalize on these developments by providing a media campaign, cyberinfrastructure, and other support for the transcription centres and the biocollections using them. The event is planned to engage both widely distributed public participants and participants in transcription events held onsite at biocollections. The latter can be used to strengthen local community support for biocollections and biodiversity research (e.g., as a launch for crowdfunding campaigns) and build sustainability.
10:30-11:00	Morning Tea
Session 5	Education and Outreach Moderators: Bruce MacFadden and Taryn Johnson
11:00-11:45	Round Table Discussion: Data uses beyond research, focusing on education, conservation, public engagement, constituency building, etc.
Session 6	Project Management Moderator: David Jennings
11:45-11:55	David Jennings - Introductory presentation
11:55-12:30	Round Table Discussion: Effective project management requires a balance of technical skills with people skills. Technical skills include areas such as planning, estimating, measuring, and controlling. In contrast, people skills include areas such as leading, enabling, motivating, and communicating. Successful project managers are flexible in applying their knowledge and skills from both areas in the correct combination keep projects moving forward. This session will discuss aspects of project management in relation to strategies, tactics, and workflows for adapting to situations and driving things forward. We invite discussion of lessons learned, what works, and what doesn’t work based on your experience and then brainstorm new approaches.
12:30-13:30	Lunch
Session 7	Moving Forward – Group Discussion Moderators: Larry Page, John La Salle, Andrew Young
13:30-15:00	Round Table Discussion: Capture ideas for projects and collaboration for the next 2 years.
15:00-15:30	Afternoon Tea
Session 8	Expected Outcomes / Future Directions Moderators: Larry Page, John La Salle, Andrew Young
15:30-16:30	Round Table Discussion: Finalising ideas from previous discussion.
16:30-17:00	Closing comments from Larry Page, John La Salle, Andrew Young
17:00	Close

Friday, 17 April 2015 :: Field Trip

9:00	Pick up from University House
9:15-10:00	Tour of Australian National Wildlife Collection (ANWC) with Leo Joseph
10:00-15:00	Visit to Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve – including Aussie barbie in the bush
15:00-16:00	Tour of Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (near Tidbinbilla)
16:00	Return to Canberra

Report

International Digitization Summit Workshop Report