-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Fwd: Introducing the Conservation Geoportal! -
ConservationMaps.org
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 08:42:11 -0500
From: John Lawton <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Forwarded from another listserv I subscribe to. Likely of interest to many
in the map and GIS library community.
John Lawton
Interim Head
John R. Borchert Map Library
University of Minnesota
S-76 Wilson Library
309 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: (612) 624-5757 | Fax: (612) 626-9353
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://map.lib.umn.edu
>Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 11:17:48 +0100
>Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
>Sender: Biological Conservation and GIS <[log in to unmask]>
>From: Frank Biasi <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Introducing the Conservation Geoportal! - ConservationMaps.org
>To: [log in to unmask]
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>Introducing the Conservation Geoportal! - www.conservationmaps.org
>
>------------------------------------
>Technical Summary
>
>The Conservation Geoportal is a new metadata catalog for discovering and
>publishing information about GIS data sets, maps, and map services. It has
>been designed specifically for the conservation field, and is intended to
>cover all conservation geographies and themes. It includes a generic map
>viewer for displaying and combining standard map services, allowing live
>maps to be easily saved and shared.
>
>The Geoportal is a shared community resource, the success of which depends
>on content provided by users. Anyone can publish metadata to the Geoportal
>for search and discovery. Selected metadata records are highlighted in
>"channels" to allow quick browsing by topic or institution. Channel Stewards
>are currently being recruited to design and populate channels, so if you
>want to help edit a channel, please indicate your interest using the Join
>option or Feedback link.
>
>------------------------------------
>Expanded Description
>
>What is it?
>
>The Conservation Geoportal is an online catalog of conservation data and
>maps. It makes it fast and easy to discover and publish information about
>conservation-related maps and GIS data from different organizations. It also
>supports basic GIS mapping and data management tasks over the Web.
>
>Conservation Geoportal 1.0 provides the following capabilities:
>
>. Discover and access conservation maps and geographic data online
>. Display and combine live web maps with the built-in Map Viewer
>. Design, save and share live maps with colleagues, partners and donors
>. Publish descriptions and links to your data and maps
>. Register other catalogs and clearinghouses for search and discovery
>
>Note that the Conservation Geoportal does not store maps and GIS data, but
>rather, descriptions and links to maps and data served by various
>organizations (i.e. metadata). Thus, data publishers control the access,
>use and currency of the data and maps they make accessible through the
>Geoportal.
>
>------------------------------------
>Why was it created?
>
>Its primary purpose is to help disseminate and leverage the vast amounts of
>GIS data and maps that are scattered and sequestered across thousands of
>organizations and individuals around the world. The Geoportal includes links
>to data and maps covering all geographies and conservation topics, including
>those in terrestrial, marine and freshwater environments.
>
>Its goal is to make this valuable information easily accessible to
>conservation scientists, planners, managers and educators to achieve their
>missions. It can also be used by governments and corporations to help plan
>and sustainably manage activities using the best available environmental
>data.
>
>The Geoportal is an initial phase in the development of a Conservation
>Basemap that will include core conservation datalayers, collaboratively
>developed, managed and peer reviewed. These data will be used to develop
>conservation atlases and data services for education, research and
>decisionmaking. For more information see
>http://conserveonline.org/workspaces/cons.geo.portal.
>
>The Geoportal is designed to be a shared resource for the Conservation
>community, to help minimize the creation and maintenance of redundant data
>catalogs and map viewers. So, if you are considering developing your own
>data catalog or map viewer, you should evaluate the Conservation Geoportal
>as a possible solution that can save your resources for other purposes.
>
>------------------------------------
>What are Channels and Channel Stewards?
>
>The Geoportal contains hundreds of metadata records describing a wide
>variety of maps and data. Users can search and filter these records by
>keywords, geography, data formats, or time period. Alternatively, they can
>browse "channels" to quickly access the best data and maps for a specific
>conservation topic, region or organization.
>
>Current channels include:
>
>. Conservation Areas
>. Species
>. Habitats
>. Threats
>. Environmental Factors
>. Socioeconomics
>. Base Map Layers
>. Data Providers
>. Sponsors
>. What's New
>
>These channels contain subchannels, subcategories and sections to organize
>links to the data and maps associated with that topic. Channels are managed
>and organized by Channel Stewards, who are individuals or teams of
>individuals knowledgeable about a particular topic, especially the data and
>map services available for it. Channel Stewards discover the best data and
>map services in their topic, encourage data providers to post metadata for
>their data and maps, organize channel structure, and link metadata records
>to the channel.
>
>------------------------------------
>Who develops and maintains it?
>
>The Conservation Geoportal is collaboratively developed and maintained by an
>expanding group of non-governmental organizations, government agencies and
>corporate partners, under the principles and auspices of the Conservation
>Commons (www.conservationcommons.org).
>
>The site is currently developed and hosted by ESRI, with initial funding
>from The Nature Conservancy, National Geographic Society, UNEP-World
>Conservation Monitoring Centre, Conservation International, and ESRI. You
>can learn more about the partners and the Conservation Commons by visiting
>the Geoportal and clicking About this Site.
>
>------------------------------------
>How can I participate?
>
>The Conservation Geoportal is a new tool for the entire Conservation
>community. As such, it depends on the community and its supporters to use
>and contribute to it.
>
>You are invited to participate in the following ways:
>
>. Use the site to find data and maps
>. Publish descriptions and links to your data and maps
>. Provide feedback to improve the site
>. Discuss and promote the site
>. Help others publish their maps and data
>. Become a Channel Steward
>. Donate funds or in-kind resources
>
>If you are interested in becoming a Channel Steward or contributing to the
>Conservation Geoportal in other ways, please visit www.conservationmaps.org
>and click Feedback.
>
>Finally, this is the initial public release of the site, so please bear with
>us and let us know if you experience significant delays or errors.
>
>
>Happy mapping, publishing, and data discovery!
>
>-The Conservation Geoportal Team
>
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