Welcome to the Globally Unique Identifiers (GUID) Wiki

Welcome to the TDWG GUID Wiki. This is a collaboration area used to discuss the use of Globally Unique Identifiers (GUIDs) in our community.

Table of Contents

A Definition of Globally Unique Identifiers (for the purposes of this group)

A globally unique identifier, or GUID, is a system that provides mechanisms to identify and access data objects on the Web. The main characteristics of a GUID system are:

• GUID systems have identifiers, which are character strings associated with data objects. urn:lsid:tdwg.org:TaxonName:12345 and doi:10.1000/182 are examples of identifiers.
• An identifier in a GUID system is persistent, i.e., it is permanently associated with a data object.
• An identifier in a GUID system is globally unique, i.e., it identifies a single data object uniquely within the system.
• Identifiers in a GUID system are actionable, i.e., the system provides mechanisms for clients to access a data object from its associated identifier. This is equivalent to saying that objects in a GUID system are locatable.
• A GUID system also provides mechanisms to describe data objects, i.e., it provides metadata about them.

Join the TDWG-GUID Mailing List to follow the discussions.

Relevant Documents

• LSID HTTP Proxy Usage Recommendations - a set of rules to make LSID more interoperable with standard World Wide Web and Semantic Web applications.

GUID Working Groups

Two main working groups have been created during GUID-1 Workshop (see the report) to implement the initial components of the GUID infrastructure and to address outstanding issues:

• InfrastructureWorkingGroup - will address the key issues regarding the deployment of LSID as the GUID technology for biodiversity informatics.
• PrototypingWorkingGroup - will develop prototypes of test cases to test aspects of a GUID infrastructure.

Events

• Meeting to develop an LSID deployment policy for the Australasian Biodiversity Federation - April 2-4, 2007 at the Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, Austrailia - This event is past

• GUID-1 Workshop - Feb 1-3, 2006 at NESCent, Durham, NC, USA - This event is past

• GUID-2 Workshop - June 10-12, 2006 at the e-Science Institute (e-SI) in Edinburgh, Scotland - This event is past

General Content

• Background - Information on the TDWG/GBIF GUID initiative
• Glossary - Definition of terms used by this community
• Process - How we are organizing the work
• How to participate - Add your comments to the wiki and join our mailing list
• How to use this wiki - Please read before adding new pages
• People
• ExistingProjects
• OutdatedPages

Other Documents

• GUID Technologies - Candidate technologies under evaluation
• Use Cases
• GUIDs and LSIDs - Powerpoint presentation by David Thau (TDWG meeting 2004)
• Globally Unique Identifiers for Biodiversity Informatics - Powerpoint presentation by Donald Hobern
• GBIF GUID Services Strategy - outline plan for development of GBIF GUID services from GBIF Data Portal Strategy
• ReallyLeanPhpAuthority

Contacts

The TDWG Infrastructure Project Team is:

• Lee Belbin, Australia - Project Manager
• Roger Hyam, United Kingdom - Technical Architect
• Ricardo Pereira, Brazil - Software Engineer

The GBIF contact is:

• Donald Hobern, Programmer Officer for Data Access and Database Interoperability (dhobern@gbifREMOVE-THIS.org)

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