Integrating the distributed data resources of the bird monitoring community using information technology strategies
This article is part of a larger document. View the larger document here.Abstract
An increasing number of bird monitoring projects are assembling massive quantities of data into numerous decentralized and locally administered storage systems. These data sources have enormous significance to a wide range of disciplines, but knowing that they exist and gaining access to them is difficult if not impossible. Attempts are being made to organize these data sources into a unified data resource, with the biggest challenge being to develop an infrastructure that facilitates data integration without compromising local control, and maintaining, when appropriate, the privacy of the data. Broadband networks provide a means to make this data available, and advances in hardware and software applications provide tools to organize and supply access to these data sets. This paper attempts to identify the key issues in organizing the contents of the bird monitoring data sets, and to discuss the technologies and solutions to overcome them.