What do you see as TDWG's GREATEST STRENGTH?

A wide base of volunteer contributors and the goodwill of a wide range of bodies to see TDWG achieve its goals.

Aggregation of scientists

Attempt to establish communication between taxonomists involved in creation of taxonomic databases

Being an open, democratic organization and hopefully people will therefor follow standards set by TDWG

BRU standard

Chaos and creativity. Dedicated and knowledgable people come together, people with a vision and a personal goal to achieve something in biodiversity informatics, not only people hired for prject money to achieve a certain task set by others. The latter seems to be strongly dominant in some GBIF meetings, where 'node managers' or even some GBIF personal shows little personal interest in their work.

Core of dedicated members

Depth of experience of its membership.

Do not know. Am not enough of a computer person to be able to participate in discussions - nor can I afford to attend meetings. I had hoped it would ensure that I would know what is going on and why but I cannot say that I feel it does.

Don't know yet.

Energy and enthusiasum of members

Engagement of a committed and knowledgeable community of biodiversity informatics practioners, with partictular strenghts related to taxonomy and natural history collections. The organization is very inclusive with respect to self-selection and involvement in different workgroups and activities. The flip side (really a weakness) is that it is sometimes difficult for newcomers to understand the processes and figure out how to get engaged.

established community

Existing cooperative user base, due largely to 'non-partisan' status (i.e., focused more on how data are exchanged, than on who should manage the exchange)

Expertise and goodwill

Good track record for setting useful standards for Botany

great technical expertise

informtion exchange, standardization,

International group of interested and informed individuals

International membership

international participation

It is the only international organization with the mission of developing standards for biodiversity informatics. It is the place to come to participate in this conceptual arena.

It is the 'only game in town' when it comes to developing, reviewing and approving standards, even if they are not yet formal in the sense of carrying weight outside TDWG

_It's a central place where one can download standards- _

Its collaborative, open, inclusive nature. Perhaps its greatest strength has been its ability to mobilise a massive voluntary workforce. As noted below, however, this strength is also its weakness. TDWG arose out of a need and has been amazing in that it has been able to continue sitting at the leading edge (we hope not the bleeding edge) of its science, and been able to evolve as the technologies and scope evolved [This process is a contination of that evolution]. One of its strengths is its open nature where its 'members' have identified a need and have then been involved in aiding in the development of a standard to cover that need. Perhaps a strength is in the nature of its membership (which does, however need expanding), but its integration of both the technical and the user community in developing a standard and the user not just passing on the need to the developers to develop a standard in isolation. This integration between users and developers needs to be maintained in any restructuring of TDWG.

Its diverse membership

its international membership

Its international membership, depth of expertise, and openness.

its 'published' standards

Its recognized worldwide as the leading organization in Standards (Structure and Protocols) in the field. Its international representation and participative process assigns it a unique role in the process of defining standards. It comes naturally that any other inititative's proposal should either comply TDWG's recommendations or propose its ideas at TDWG.

Its relations with GBIF and CODATA.

It's strenght is also it's weakness; a big community of people and institutions that freely provide their knowledge.

Large base of taxonomic expertise, mostly without commercial influence.

mix of biological & computer science knowledge

Multi-institutional - not driven by single agenda - crossing many nations

Not able to offer an informed opinion.

Organisational skills

Organistational skills

practioner-led organisation

Publishing these working collections and making them widely known to other taxonomic workers.

Recent reinforcements.

Same as number 6.

Standards and the current alignment with GBIF.

_Strong activity _

Symbiosis with GBIF - yields support, priority, and importance to TDWG Second, I would say the dedicated volunteer people involved with TDWG.

Taxonomy and systematics are the foundation of all comparative biology

_TDWG is the only real forum for biodiversity database 'techies' -- the meetings are invaluable for those in this field. Published, or at least endorsed TDWG standards are very good. _

TDWG possesses core set of people with a broad range of expertise who are dedicated to the interchange of biological information.

TDWG provides democratic means for the review and adoption of standards.

TDWG's members

That it has some very keen members.

The ability to use consensus to develop standards.

The combined commitment, knowledge and experience of the diverse TDWG members.

the commitment of the people involved, and the will to work together for the common benefit

The committed community of people involved. TDWG has over the last several years garnered the interest of more young scientists and technology experts. It's relationship to GBIF is a great strength, as it collaboration with other standards bodies, such as the Open Geospatial Consortium.

the community

The consortium of strong partners - the member institutes.

The enthusiasm of it's key contributors

the enthusiasm, experience, knowledge and skills of the members of TDWG

The goodwill of the taxonomic community and the participation of many stakeholders

The knowledge of people in it.

The knowledge, experience and dedication of its members.

The meeting itself - great networking opportunity

_The research community (of Biologists, Taxonomists and Bio-informatists) recognizes the importance of standards in exchanging data _

The strong desire from its members to create standards

To act as consensus guide for the systematics.

uncertain; the fact that it exists as an international discussion forum for such issues?

variety of fields and geographic diversity in membership provides an excellent opportunity to come together.

Willingness to undertake this task.