This is the rather hideous name I have coined for systems that facilitate the storage and management of biodiversity informatics data. Ideally these systems should have a web editable interface, and be sufficiently generic that they meet the wide-ranging needs of different research communities working on different taxa. At the NHM we are meeting these needs in a range of ways, either through the development of bespoke systems like CATE for getting monographic data on-line, implementing off the shelf applications like Orthoptera Species File (recently renamed "Species File" to reflect the generic status of this application), and through the use of generic web content management systems like Drupal, into which we are plugging modules that perform core tasks like managing literature and image databases. Late last year I posted a request on the Taxacom mailing list about TCM systems that were in use or in development. I was not exactly flooded with responses and most of the replies misunderstood my question, but the results do provide a starting place for anyone looking to use or develop such systems. Matt Yoder at Texas A&M University recently asked whether I'd got copy of this list on-line, or was maintaining an updated copy. The short answer is no, but the following (which are the results of my original Taxacom request), might provide a start. I don't have the time to organize this list and remove the spurious entries. Also there are be a few new entries missing from this list that I'll blog about shortly. However, if anybody else wants to want to take on this task, be my guest:

1. I would appreciate if you could post or send direct to my e-mail the replies of your question. The INPA's fish collection is using Specify and we are currently considering which system to use in our Invertebrate collections (Insects and 13 other invertebrate groups). Thank you in advance. Yours, Celio Magalhaes Collection of Invertebrates Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia Manaus, AM - Brazil

2. Are you aware of the list created by Walter Berendsohn et al. for GBIF? Berendsohn, W., Güntsch, A. and Röpert, D. (2003). Survey of existing publicly distributed collection management and data capture software solutions used by the world's natural history collections. Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Copenhagen. . Note that BioLink is no longer available via the CSIRO Web site. There was also an exercise by WCMC about 5 or 6 years ago - came out on Floppy Disk. I am sure I have a copy somewhere. Cheers Arthur D. Chapman (Trading as: Australian Biodiversity Information Services)

3. We have a crude system operational right now: http://www2.bishopmuseum.org/natscidb/ It's little more than a prototype at the moment, but I am just now emabraking on a complete re-write, updating to .NET, and will vastly imporve the function and performance, as well as adding editic capabilities (I hope to migrate all of our internal databases to a web interface). I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. Needless to say, I'm very interested in what you find out. Aloha, Rich Richard L. Pyle, PhD

4. Re your post to Taxacom, The Artedian and the WebArtedian are being actively developed, and going from Ichthyology will eventually be more generally useful. http://artedi.nrm.se/nrmfish/ for the WebArtedian http://artedi.nrm.se/fishbase_se/software/artedian/ for a now somewhat dated version of the Artedian Within GBIF-Sweden we are developing similar web-based tools, but nothing ready for presentation yet. Best regards Sven Sven O Kullander, PhD, Associate Professor

5. We are developing web based molecular database for the identification fungi. Data on specimen, DNA and in some cases descriptions including pictures are included. Look at http://unite.ut.ee It would be most interesting to receive consolidated results! Cheers, Urmas Prof. Urmas Koljalg Institute of Botany and Ecology

6. As you were interested in work in progress, Taxis (the spftware I am working on) is pretty much what it is - a lot of work in progress. The version that is online at the moment (http://www.bio-tools.net) is seriously outdated and will be replaced next year. I will attach in the end of the message the latest newsletter sent to Taxis users in April. Since that message things has changed again and I will briefly mention them: Bitoolz Taxis 4 will be .Net Framework v2 based. There will be Windows and Web interfaces essentially duplicationg all the functions including editing. Data layer is abstracted from specific database and the app (both win and web) can connect to the most database systems available. More interfaces may come next year (for handheld devices for instance) Web interface will be asp.net (AJAX enabled) Win interace will of course be able to access the remote database as well. I will be happy to discuss technical details and provide the access to beta versions as soon as WinForms app is in some shape and WebForms is uploaded to Biotoolz server (I am already experimenting with it on the localhost). There are many other things I didn't mention so, again, I will be happy to answer your questions if there are any. Evgeniy Evgeniy Meyke

7. I am not personally working on a fully integrated Web-based taxonomic system, but a draft version of "Millipedes of Australia" is circulating on CD-ROM. This is organised hierarchically a la the current taxonomy and includes complete synonymies, a bibliography, a types catalogue and museums list, images and distribution maps. All information is internally hyperlinked: ca. 9500+ hyperlinks on the current ca. 400 HTML pages. I hope to have the site online (on CSIRO Entomology's server) later this year and to add illustrated text keys, as in my "multipedes" site (see below). The hierarchical structure will make it easy to add genetic data, more images, publication PDFs, etc in future. However, the site is not linked to a specimen database. Separate specimen databases for various Australian millipede groups are under construction by specialists but there is no plan yet to make these public due to possible data-ownership issues for museums. The most useful external site I've found which overlaps with my own interests is the wonderful SysTax: http://www.biologie.uni-ulm.de/systax/ This is database-linked. There is a personnel overlap at SysTax with German workers who are building a gigantic digital library of original taxonomic works, but I understand the latter project is sub rosa for the time being. Regards, Bob Dr Robert Mesibov

8. We recently had a meeting of Lepidopteran systematists and there was quite a bit of discussion of the databasing problem. I have a lab database aimed at looking after mostly genetic data, but it also has specimen data which would benefit from linking to up to date taxonomy. The only interactive and updateable database I know for Leps is the pyralid project (see below). We are hoping to develop the genetic interactive database with the help of Nescent (http://www.nescent.org/main/), but it would be great if there were an open-source modular architecture that could be developed in different ways by different groups, so as to include everything from taxonomy through to genomic, biogeographic and phenotypic information. I know this probably sounds hopelessly ambitious, but if the underlying database software is made open source and modular then I dont see why it shouldnt happen eventually. Its something to think about anyway. See you in London some day Cheers Chris Jiggins Links: My own lab database used mostly for molecular and sequence data but also housing collection and specimen data: http://heliconius.cap.ed.ac.uk/butterfly/db/index.php A db for pyralid moths, primarily aimed at being an interactive systematic list that can be updated over the web: http://www.pyraloidea.org/ A butterflies of Ecuador database based on collection and systematics by Keith Willmott (not editable I dont think). http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/butterflies/neotropica/db/search.asp A Lepidopteran consortium with more links to databases and lists www.lepsys.eu

9. Kelley Thomas and we of the nematode tree of life project are building a web database. It is by no means up to our standards yet--it is very much a work in progress, but we have made significant progress, I think. Most of it is Kelley's brilliant vision and hard work. http://worm.unh.edu/ David Fitch

10. We are in the process of developing online tools to allow the various categories of BRAHMS users (www.brahmsonline.com) to get their data online. We made a start on this a few years back with a focus on specimen data. Examples of various draft databases in Version 1: http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/?leucaena monograph http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/?cupressaceae monograph http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/?oxford curation http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/?nhn curation network http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/?seabcin curation network http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/?gabon checklist We're working on BOL Version 2 for October this year - this inludes greater nomenclature content and functionality and a move to SQL Server. We're being pressed to extend functionality for monographic data in general. I hope helpful, Denis Filer

11. Here is a system that might fit the criteria of what you are reviewing: http://www.entomology.ualberta.ca/ The purpose is to provide a seamless merging of species pages (with images etc) and specimen data, with summaries of the specimen data being compiled dynamically (e.g. phenology graphs). If you have any questions about functionality, please contact Jim Whittome jim.whittome@ualberta.ca Sincerely, Felix Sperling Felix Sperling, Professor

12. My name is Gemma Reston and I am working alongside Dr David Montagnes at the University of Liverpool in The Biological Sciences Department. I am aware that David collaborates with a few members of staff already (Dave Roberts, Gianfranco Novarino and Alan Warren). We are currently developing and maintaining two websites, which you may have already come across (they receive over 1000 hits a day): 1. The Planktonic Ciliate Project - www.liv.ac.uk/ciliate/intro.htm 2. The Harmful Plankton Project - www.liv.ac.uk/hab/intro.htm Both sites, as you will see, are presented in a series of datasheets. Each species has a dedicated sheet, with descriptive information and some images to aid identification. We are also in the process of putting three separate online identification keys (available through the 'KEY' link on the HPP site) which will make identification of harmful species much more straight forward. If you would like myself and Dr David Montagnes to give a brief talk about what we do, then we would be very willing to travel down. I know this is a bit off topic but the maintenance of the site and data collection relies solely on funding from external sources. The money we have at the moment is soon to run out. Therefore, we are also actively seeking any available funding for the site and research associated, do you know of anyone who we could potentially approach? I look forward to hearing from you. Yours Sincerely Gemma Reston

13. I was participated in a European project "FishTrace" whish was finished on the 30th of June, 2006. FishTrace is a genetic catalogue assiciated to biological reference collections from more than 200 commercial marine fish. Genetic and taxonomic information is compiled in on online database : www.fishtrace.org. If you want more information, please contact our coordinator : José M. Bautisa at jmbau@vet.ucm.es. Best regards, Dr Véronique Verrez-Bagnis

14. I believe you did not forget my database. For now it does not have an interface for editing data, but I am thinking about it and I am interested in results of your survey. The 3I database stores taxonomic information, distribution, hosts, literature, images, external links, morphological information, interactive keys. The link to the web site is below. Regards, Dmitry -- Dmitry A. Dmitriev Illinois Natural History Survey