NBN Data Capture Initiative 2014
The NBN Trust has been successful in a bid to the Government’s Release of Data Fund and has started work with data providers in England to mobilise 15 biological datasets from across the Network. This project will increase open data holdings on NBN Gateway by 4%.
Northamptonshire Biodiversity Records Centre, Bedfordshire & Luton Biodiversity Recording and Monitoring Centre, Norfolk Biodiversity Information Service (NBIS), North West Fungus Group, The Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (MBA), Essex Wildlife Trust and Hertfordshire Environmental Records Centre will have their datasets digitised, and made available on the NBN Gateway and data.gov.uk.
It is expected that an additional 500,000 species records from over 5000 discrete taxa, and 80,000 habitat polygons will be mobilised from these 15 datasets. Initially five datasets will be digitised over the next 2 months. Once this work is progressing well, work to digitise the remaining 10 datasets will begin. The project is due to be completed by 31 March 2015.
The sheer expanse of data held across the UK, in such a wide variety of formats is phenomenal and it is imperative that these data are captured and preserved from loss and mobilised for efficient use. The NBN Trust is currently investigating a programme of work to connect with enthusiastic and interested volunteers across the UK to undertake data entry from the comfort of their home. Crowdsourcing of this kind will enable large groups of people to help in the digitising of large quantities of existing data held in notebooks, recording forms, photos and museum specimen cards. The NBN Trust will shortly be asking members of the Network from Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland to identify biological data that could be digitised as part of this type of UK-wide programme. Watch this space!
Key messages:
1. NBN wants to work with members to facilitate capture of open biological data.
2. Lots of valuable data is unavailable because it has not been digitised.
3. This project will increase open data holdings on NBN Gateway by 4%.
4. The NBN Trust wishes to reduce the risk of data loss which is high when data are held in legacy formats
5. NBN is investigating long-term sustainable data capture programmes through use of crowd-sourced volunteer systems and tools.
This project will help to plug some of the gaps mentioned in the Data Deficits article, which you may find of interest. You can also read the article from John Sawyer, which looks at some of the same issues.