GBIF.ES - European GBIF Nodes Meeting 2010

Agenda has been refined to take into account latest developments. Thanks to Cees Hof for this and to other colleagues for volunteering to take an active role in different sections of the meeting.

Just after the "detailed agenda" a "Essential readings" section has been added with links to some documents to have in mind for our discussions.

Bus will depart from the hotel to the meeting venue a 8:30AM, so please be at the lobby a few minutes in advance.

We had wished a warmer weather, but, giving the nature of this winter in Europe, I guess we cannot complain too much.

GBIF.ES, Unidad de Coordinación       Tel.+34 91 420 3017 x 274
Real Jardín Botánico - CSIC               Fax +34 91 429 2405
Plaza de Murillo, 2                           pando@gbif.es
28014 Madrid, Spain                          www.gbif.es

It is now available the updated agenda including time slots. You can check the items and their tittles on:

After assigning 15 minutes to every node presentation there is some “unassigned time left, about one hour and a half. Before making any decision on how to use this time we would appreciate if you could provide some ideas about it.

If any of you is having any problems with the hotel booking or with any other logistic issue, please let us know as well.

Unidad de Coordinación de GBIF España, Real Jardín Botánico-CSIC
Plaza de Murillo, 2. 28014 Madrid, Spain
Telf: +34 91 420 3017 x 273
Fax: +34 91 429 2405
villaverde@gbif.es - http://www.gbif.es/

Francisco Pando

(As Cees put it: "how many EU countries are we still missing), how much of our potential data have we mobilised, what is the coverage of data from the EU, do we progress, rate of georeferenced data, what about taxonomic and geographic coverage of data from the EU, etc. etc. ").

3.- An open call: Besides the NordBIN reporting; Is anyone willing to on other regional meetings where GBIF (nodes included) was present in some way?

A reminder: So far only Ireland (and Spain) have confirmed that they will present something. Please confirm that you will present something in this regard by sending a message to Cristina (one per node), and letting her know how much time you would use (up to 15 min.!)

Questions, suggestions, request for clarification --on the agenda and on the meeting at large-- welcome at any time.

On the basis of topics contributed by you, the Nodes Executive, in collaboration and communication with Juan Carlos Bello (GBIF Secretariat Program Officer for Nodes), have assemble a draft agenda. This is available to you in the same document it was used to gather the agenda items:

Please have a look at it and share your comments by email. We will discuss them and try to take them into account to produce a final version of agenda.

We have include a "By " line for some items, please check if your name or initials are there and check with me for details (we have included them just a as suggestions at this time). Depending on the nature of the item, these persons will have to deliver presentation, a short introduction on the topic, or to convene a round table discussion. A number of items need to assigned; volunteers for taking care of specific items, please contact me. Besides, you may expect messages from me in that regard.

Second day is mostly taken by "nodes presentations", with only one rule: "15 min. max." in this time we invite you to (e.g.):

Presenters are free to decide how to use those 15 min (or less if they prefer) for the talk, demonstration and taking questions.

Please confirm that you will present something in this regard by sending a message to Cristina Villaverde villaverde@gbif.es (one per node), and letting her know how much time you would use (up to 15 min.!). It would be very nice to have something from every single node, and does not have to be complicated or a total success story. I believe we all are eager to learn from each other.

"Please send a message to Cristina Villaverde (villaverde@gbif.es) indicating if you plan to attend the meeting (and how many of you would come) or if you ARE NOT going to as well. Some of you have already given to me an indication, but in order to keep the tally right, we really would appreciate if you send that message not later than Wednesday, January 27th."

We really need to have a a good idea of attendance by tomorrow C.O.B. to proceed with the meeting room reservation. This is also important to request financial support for the meeting to various sources.

We have set up a web page with the relevant information about the meeting --included participants:

I would also like to remind you about the agenda building; we will keep accumulating items until feb. 5-- using the Google docs already mentioned and also accessible from the web page indicated above.

As already mentioned too, "We expect you to cover for your travel and lodging expenses. All other costs will be coverer by the organizers. In case you have a financial issue for attending the meeting, please let me know."

Regarding meeting facilities we have a choice of two rooms, one for up to 30 people around a table and another -bigger- with a classroom layout. We need to book the meeting room next week. In order to help us to make the decision, I would appreciate I if you could send a message to Cristina Villaverde (villaverde@gbif.es) indicating if you plan to attend the meeting (and how many of you would come) or if you ARE NOT going to as well. Some of you have already given to me an indication, but in order to keep the tally right, we really would appreciate if you send that message not later than Wednesday, January 27th.

More on logistics. We plan to be all together at Hotel Spa Porta Maris & Suites del Mar 4* (http://www.hotelspaportamaris.com/esp/index-esp.htm). It is a nice one and beautifully located. Rate per person per night will be under 100 Eur, breakfast included. A web site for bookings is under development, and when ready will be announced. You will have to make your own reservations. Booking a few extra nights will be possible.

As announced, meeting venue will be University of Alicante; daily transportation by bus between hotel and venues is being arranged.

Some of you have started to add your views to the item list for the agenda, may thanks and well done. As for the rest, please do not be shy: visit and contribute to it:

As anticipated in my message of Dec. 21, we are heading for a EU GBIF Meetings In Alicante (Spain) next March.

The meeting is planned to start on March the 10th (Wednesday) at 9:00 AM and finish by 1:00PM on the 12th (Friday).

The venue will be University of Alicante. Hotel reservations will be made through the University of Alicante Services. They have special rates in a nice hotel in downtown Alicante. Instructions on how to make your reservations will be provided shortly. Daily transport between the hotel and the meeting venue will be arranged.

Now is time to define the agenda for the meeting. As an starting point, I have created a Google Docs document that you can access (and edit) through the link below (no login required):

Please enter and contribute: add, change, suggest… and identify yourself in your contributions. You can add rows to the table presented as required. The idea is to maintain the discussion on the agenda open until February 5th. After that date we will prioritize items and try to produce a coherent, practical and useful agenda.

Lacking something better, please use the list of emails I am using. That has been compiled from http://www.gbif.org/participation/participant-nodes/who-we-are/countries/?region=Europe with some fine tuning (organizations based in Europe, UK, etc.). If you feel there are bits to change or update in this list, let Juan Bello (Nodes Officer at GBIF Secretariat) and me know.

A few lines to let you know that plans to hold a European regional meeting of GBIF Node managers are going ahead, as agreed in our last meeting in Copenhagen.

The venue and local host is "University of Alicante (Spain) ", and we are aiming for a two an a half days during the second week of March 2010 (i.e. between March the 8th and the 12th). Please mark it on your agendas.

The organization of the meeting is being coordinated between NLBIF (Cees Hof, GBIF Secretariat (Juan Bello) and GBIF Spain. We plan to hold a discussion among all of us, European Node Managers, in January to define the agenda, via the GBIF Community site (http://elggtest.gbif.org).

We expect you to cover for your own travel and lodging expenses. All other costs will be coverer by the organizers. In case you have a financial issue for attending the meeting, please let me know.