Fw: NBII to be terminated

[Chris Nicholas]

:-( --- On Wed, 10/12/11, Hakim Abdi <ab...@GEOINFORMATIC.ORG> wrote:  The following is taken from Matt Ball's website, Spatial Sustain: The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) is being terminated as of Jan. 15, 2012, due to a $3.8 million budget cut. As a result, all resources, databases, tools, and applications within the website terminated and no longer available. The site’s blog has already been terminated as of last week, and will be removed completely as of Nov. 1. The NBII fostered a broad, collaborative program to provide increased access to data and information on the nation’s biological resources. The effort was effective in linking diverse, high-quality biological databases, information products, and analytical tools from partner institutions and contributors in government agencies, academic institutions, non-government organizations, and private industry. The effort fostered many standards to facilitate online sharing of data and services, including: FGDC Biological Data Profile standard for describing biological data Geospatial Interoperability Framework based on ISO standards and OGC specifications. Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) for finding the scientific names of species by their popular names or vice-versa. A number of data portals and tools of a geospatial nature were also compiled here, including: Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Data Access Wizard – tool to facilitate discovery and access to fisheries-related data sets Gap Analysis Program (GAP) – searchable statewide collection of digital species distribution maps and predictable habitat affinity models Early Detection, Rapid Assessment, and Rapid Response (EDRR) to Invasive Species – a living catalog of resources for invasive species management USGS Vegetation Characterization Program Products – Web-enabled information, data, and maps of the vegetation of 280 national Park units across the United States There has been some indication that some of these resources will be hosted by the Data Observation Network of Earth (DataONE) cyberinfrastructure that serves to meet the needs of science and society with easily discovered Earth observation data, which is made possible through funding from the National Science Foundation. For more information regarding this transition, refer to the NBII Program Termination page. ______________________________________ Hakim Abdi Senior Staff Research Assistant/ Geographic Information Specialist Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Earth Institute | Columbia University Ph/SMS: +1 747 224 7006       ******************************************************* SCGIS:The LISTSERV for the Society for Conservation GIS www.scgis.org To unsubscribe send the following email message to LIST...@LISTSERV.URI.EDU: SIGNOFF SCGIS ********************************************************