SEI(BIO): Computing Support for Acquisition, Collaborative Curation, and Dissemination in Biodiversity Research

生物多样性研究中获取、协作和传播的计算支持生物多样性测绘和跟踪是生物学的一个重要分支领域。目标是了解生态系统的显著特征及其与物种多样性和动植物遗传的相互作用。将研究生物多样性科学家工作流程中的三个组成部分：信息获取、协作收集管理和生物多样性研究成果的有效传播。将为这些活动推进器中的每一个构建相互关联的原型。采购工作的重点将是实地数据收集，以及在探险期间促进研究人员小组之间与数据有关的协作。获奖者将为小型设备设计新的界面，以节省电力，最大限度地减少数据导航工作，并通过在空间中虚拟放置共享信息堆来扩大屏幕空间。合作的管理工作将创建ColCura，这是一个联合生物多样性收集的基础设施。这个系统的新特点将是各地的研究人员不仅可以贡献文物，还可以贡献关于现有收藏项目的元数据。这项工作将特别利用信息的地理参照来连接原本互不相交的数据项。与传播有关的活动将开发半定向浏览生物多样性信息的新方法。研究小组将把约束满足方法和信息项的动态链接结合在一起，形成一种专门用于生物多样性数据的新型浏览器。这款浏览器的主要目标之一将是鼓励偶然发现。生物多样性研究的性质对所有国家及其居民都有很大影响。在贾斯珀山脊进行的本地化、长期研究提供了对植物和动物生命发育影响的宝贵的详细洞察。在斯坦福大学，这项工作将为生物学专业的学生提供与计算机科学同行互动的独特机会。加州学院直接帮助第三世界国家了解涉及其自然资源的经济权衡。全球贸易和旅行加速了生物变化在全球的传播。因此，加快我们理解这些变化的努力变得越来越紧迫。

ABSTRACTNSF-0430448Garcia-Molina, HectorComputing Support for Acquisition, Collaborative Curation, and Dissemination in Biodiversity ResearchThe mapping and tracking of biodiversity is an important subfield of Biology. The goal is to understand the salient characteristics of ecosystems and their interactions with the diversity of species and genetics of .flora and fauna. Three components in the workflow of biodiversity scientists: information acquisition, collaborative collection curation, and effective dissemination of biodiversity research results will be studied. Interconnected prototypes will be constructed for each of these activity thrusts. The acquisition work will focus on data collection in the field, and on enabling data-related collaboration among small groups of researchers during expeditions. The grant recipients will design novel interfaces for small devices such that power is conserved, data navigation effort is minimized, and screen space is expanded by virtually placing shared information piles in space. Collaborative curation efforts will create ColCura, an infrastructure for federating biodiversity collections. The novel feature of this system will be that researchers everywhere can contribute artifacts, but also metadata about existing collection items. This work will particularly exploit the geo-referencing of information to connect otherwise disjoint data items. Dissemination-related activities will develop novel methods for semi-directed browsing of biodiversity information. The research team will combine a mixture of constraint satisfaction methods and dynamic linkage of information items into a novel browser that is specialized to biodiversity data. One of this browser's main goals will be to encourage serendipitous discovery. Biodiversity research by its nature greatly impacts all nations and their inhabitants. The localized, long-term studies at Jasper Ridge provide invaluable detailed insight into the effects of development on plant and animal life. At Stanford the work will offer unique opportunities for Biology students to interact with their peers in Computer Science. The California Academy directly helps 3rd World nations understand economic tradeoffs that involve their natural resources. Global trade and travel speed the spread of biological change across the globe. Accelerating our efforts to understand these changes is therefore of increasing urgency.