The Global Biodiversity Informatics Conference 2 will convene a broad group of invited stakeholders to discuss how international coordination for biodiversity informatics could operate to accelerate delivery of open global biodiversity data to benefit science and society. The vision for GBIC2 is to 1) provide a framework for international parties to work together efficiently and 2) enable a global network of institutions and organizations to take responsibility for components that create a fully interconnected whole. This is an opportunity for GBIF to accelerate and improve management and access to biodiversity information for the global community. Achieving these goals would assist with modernization of international taxonomic efforts, with making biodiversity data compatible with earth observation systems, and with implementing the Sustainable Development Goals.

The goal of GBIC2 is to improve coordination across all regions in delivering an interconnected ecosystem of biodiversity information management infrastructure, supported by an international network of institutions, agencies and researchers. Global attendees will include representatives for JRS’ focal region from the African Academy of Sciences and from the African Open Science Platform, as well as individuals from research institutions, national biodiversity agencies, and more.

• Development and publication of a white paper of the consensus vision for global-scale coordination for biodiversity informatics
• Publication of conference proceedings
• Downloadable abstracts and presentations from the conferences

Hobern D, Apostolico A, Arnaud E, Bello JC, Canhos D, Dubois G, Field D, Alonso Garcia E, Hardisty A, Harrison J, Heidorn B, Krishtalka L, Mata E, Page RDM, Parr C, Price J & Willoughby S (2012) Global Biodiversity Informatics Outlook: Delivering biodiversity knowledge in the information age. Copenhagen: Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Available at: https://www.gbif.org/document/80859.

Hobern D, Baptiste B, Copas K, Guralnick R, Hahn A, van Huis E, Kim E, McGeoch M, Naicker I, Navarro L, Noesgaard D, Price M, Rodrigues A, Schigel D, Sheffield C, Wieczorek J (2019) Connecting data and expertise: a new alliance for biodiversity knowledge. Biodiversity Data Journal 7: e33679. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.7.e33679.

The JRS funds supported travel costs for attendees from Africa and other regions. Due to complications with visas, four of the African attendees who were supposed to receive travel support were unable to attend because their visas were not approved in time. The remaining funds covered expenses related to the venue, facilitation costs and a pre-conference meeting with the members of the international Steering Committee. This experience was a reminder of the challenging process of obtaining visas which present yet another hurdle to African scientists to participate in international professional networks. A major take away from this conference experience was to encourage African attendees to apply as early as possible to obtain the visas.

Donald Hobern is currently the Executive Secretary of GBIF, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark.  In this role he is responsible for coordinating the activities of a global network for sharing biodiversity data currently comprised of 57 countries and 36 international organizations. His career in software development and biodiversity informatics spans over 30 years. Hobern was GBIF’s technical lead between 2002 and 2007, with responsibility for adopting and promoting data standards and an international culture of data sharing. From 2007 to 2011, he worked for CSIRO as the inaugural Director of the Atlas of Living Australia, or ALA, overseeing the development of its architecture and core tools within the context of the many ALA collaborators. During the same period, he served a three-year term as Chair of the Taxonomic Databases Working Group (TDWG), the international organization responsible for development of standards for exchange of biodiversity data. 

JRS is very pleased to join Atlas of Living Australia, Agence Française de la Biodiversité, Distributed System of Scientific Collections, The Field Museum, iDigBio, Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, Netherlands Biodiversity Information Facility, Pensoft, United Nations Environment Programme, and University of Copenhagen as funders of GBIC2. We are excited by the possibilities of international coordination of biodiversity informatics planning and the development of a mechanism to actualize a consensus vision.  JRS had the privilege of supporting GBIF in the first Global Biodiversity Informatics Conference in 2012 that led to the publication of the Global Biodiversity Informatics Outlook, articulating a framework to harness the power of information technology.  A successful GBIC2 should accelerate delivery of open infrastructure to support African stakeholders and provide a model which allows African institutions and agencies to contribute elements of a global biodiversity information infrastructure and collaboration with colleagues all over the world.