S08 - Biodiversity Data Quality – alpha to omega

Unsolicited contributions considered? Yes

Abstract

Data quality (DQ) remains a major concern in biodiversity informatics. The distributed nature of data acquisition from myriad collectors/observers, their labels and field notes, and the difficulties associated with capturing the dimensions of taxonomic concepts, geographic space, and scales of time, make it mandatory to discuss DQ in biodiversity data to ensure maximum utility and re-use by data consumers. It also important that the results of data quality assessments and improvements made by or to aggregators are fed back through the system to the people, collections, and organizations in charge of maintaining those data both now and into the future. We must ensure that the community is engaged to share and benefit from innovative ideas, methods and tools that are being developed to assess ‘data quality’ or better fitness for use. The TDWG Data Quality Interest Group has been working hard over the past few years to develop data quality standards and last year published a framework on DQ and developed of core set of data quality tests covering name, space, time and ‘other’ - i.e. the key Darwin Core terms relating to the name of the organism, where it was collected or observed, and when. In this, our 5th Symposium we seek to engage the audience in our work, seek feedback and discussion, and recruit participants to the large and vital task of achieving a highly utilized suite of tools, services, and workflows.