Table of Contents

• Introduction
• The Documents
• Timeline
• Public Review
• Changes From Previous Versions
• Going Forward

Introduction

This page is a guide to the progress of the standards process for Darwin Core. The standard was submitted to Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), which has rules for submission published at http://www.tdwg.org/about-tdwg/process/ under Ratification of Standards. This standard was developed under the Darwin Core Task Group (http://www.tdwg.org/activities/darwincore/).

The Documents

The entry level document for the Darwin Core standard can be found at http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/index.htm. This is where anyone new to the documents should start. For the list of all Darwin Core terms and definitions go directly to Darwin Core Terms: A quick reference guide at http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/.

Timeline

• 14 Feb 2009 - The standard was submitted to the TDWG Executive Committee.
• 17 Feb 2009 - Gail Kampmeier accepted role as Review Manager.
• 11 Apr 2009 - Peer Review submitted to Darwin Core Task Group.
• 01 May 2009 - Revisions made and comments submitted to Review Manager.
• 13 May 2009 - Additional recommendations provided by the Review Manager.
• 24 May 2009 - Revisions made and new version committed to standards track.
• 29 May 2009 - Revisions accepted and draft standard forwarded for review by the TDWG Executive Committee.
• 29 Jun 2009 - Executive Review submitted to Darwin Core Task Group with recommendation to accept for Public Review with revisions.
• 08 Jul 2009 - Revisions made and new version committed to standards track.
• 11 Jul 2009 - Proposed standard announced for public review.
• 10 Aug 2009 - Earliest possible date for the close of public review.
• 23 Sep 2009 - Public Review closed, response version published.
• 08 Oct 2009 - Standard ratified by TDWG Executive Committee.

Public Review

Review discussions were invited on the tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org mailing list and remained open from 11 July through 23 Sep 2009. Anyone who wishes to see the the discussion may look in the archives of this list, which can be found at http://lists.tdwg.org/pipermail/tdwg-content/.

Changes From Previous Versions

The Standard Darwin Core differs from previous versions in several important ways.

• The primary purpose of the standard is more open to biological data of all kinds than previous versions, whose scope was limited to biological occurrence and biased toward specimen data.
• The foundation of the standard is a list of reusable concepts (called terms) rather than just a set of XML schemas. The list is maintained in its canonical form in rdf (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/rdf/dwcterms.rdf). The remainder of the standard consists of documentation about the terms, their maintenance, their use in applications, and the mechanisms for extending the Darwin Core, as well as a number of functional and example application profiles.
• The list of terms consists of those derived from previous versions of the Darwin Core XML schemas (including OBIS and the Curatorial, Geospatial, and Paleontology extensions), as well as terms recommended for use by the Observations, Animal Movement, Crop Wild Relatives, Genetic Resources, and Sensitive Data groups. In the making of this list and the crafting of the term definitions, care was taken to address concerns arising in discussion groups, mailing lists, and wiki commentary since the inception of the first proposed Darwin Core XML schema.

Going Forward

The Darwin Core is a living, evolving standard, with mechanisms to adapt to newly defined requirements. Clear, complete, and concise recommendations for change (as opposed to musings or general discussion) should be submitted as Issues in the Issue Tracker of the Darwin Core Project. To learn how to do this, consult the Submitting Issues page at http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/SubmittingIssues.