Transcript What is GFIS? - Center for International Forestry Research

The Global Marketplace for Forest Information
History of GFIS
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1998:
– ICRIS Meeting (IFF country-lead initiative Indonesia/Austria)
– Establishment of a IUFRO Task Force
1999:
– Initital technical concept aiming at a GFIS prototype
2000:
– Establishment of IUFRO‘s Special Programme GFIS
– GFIS Africa Project
2001:
– Establishment of 5 GFIS Service Centres in Africa
2002:
– Initial efforts in Asia (CIFOR) and Latin America (Embrapa)
– First international presentation of GFIS (Copenhagen)
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2003:
– GFIS Consortium (International Steering Group
– Presentation of a GFIS functional prototype service at the World Forestry
Congress, Quebec City (September 2003)
– Termination of the IUFRO Task Force on GFIS
What is GFIS?
GFIS is an Internet
gateway to forest
information
resources from
around the world.
Users can locate
maps, datasets, web
resources, journal
articles, books and
other resources
relevant to their
information needs.
A federation of people and forest
information resources
connected through technology,
expertise and interests.
www.gfis.net
What is in GFIS?
Access to…
Silviculture
Maps
About…
Physiology
and Genetics
Journals
Grey
Literature
Forest Operations
and Techniques
Inventory,
Growth and Yield
GIS
Policies
Source: Krehan, Department of
Forest Protection, BFW
Experts
Data
Social,
Economic,
Information and
Policy Sciences
12/2000
Fire Atlas
Africa
Source:
esa ESRIN
Research
Reports
Forest Products
Source: Schnabel, Department
of Forest Growth, BFW
Forest Health
Forest
Environment
Images
Over 100,000 catalogue records are currently available through GFIS from
50 organisations located in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America.
This pool of reference data is the starting point for a continuously expanding service
eventually providing links to all information resources worldwide.
www.gfis.net
Who needs GFIS?
GFIS community:
Scientists, decision-makers, forest managers, industries, information
specialists, educators, NGOs, general public
…and GFIS
Users
GFIS
Providers …
Questioning
Accessing
Locating
Retrieving
Interpreting
Managing
Finding Solutions
Making
Decisions
Collecting
Analysing
Documenting
Publishing
Cataloguing
Archiving
Distributing
www.gfis.net
…from a variety of
recognised sources …
GFIS: A Distributed System
GFIS is a distributed system whereby participating
organisations remain responsible for the generation
and maintenance of their information content.
GFIS enables users to locate that content and, where
appropriate, access it through GFIS Service Centres or
from the information provider directly.
System Architecture
A Federated Approach
Client
Search Queries
Information
Provider z
GFIS Information Server
Metadata
Repository at
Server
Search Services
Information
Provider o
........
Information
Provider n
GFIS Service Center 1
GFIS Service Center N
Information
Provider 1
Information
Provider k
........
Information
Provider t
........
........
GFIS Service Center Z
Information
Provider p
Information
Provider q
Metadata
GFIS-DC Metadata
GFIS-DC Metadata
GFIS -DC Metadata
........
Data Object 1
Data Object 2
Data Object 3
Metadata
........
Data Object k
Data Object n
GFIS Information Server
The GFIS information server is the central technical
component of GFIS. It collects GFIS metadata from the
Service Centres, thus enabling global searching.
The server facilitates search services, such as multihost searching, z39.50 services, and Simple Object
Access Protocol (SOAP). Thus, it enables global
interoperability searching.
Data/Information Object (DO)
Data/Information Objects are the items that the user
wants to find through metadata searching. These
items have different content, spatial and temporal
scales, format and other attributes specific to each
object and database.
Metadata
Metadata are data about data. Each metadata
item is used to describe a data/information
object. The GFIS metadata definition is based
on the Dublin Core metadata standard.
GFIS Metadata Elements (I)
Desirable DC fields:
DC Description
Title
The name given to the resource by the
CREATOR or PUBLISHER
Creator
The person(s) or organisations primarily
responsible for the intellectual content of the
resource
Subject
Here: Subject Keywords: free text
(user-defined keywords)
Type
Category of the resource: e.g. homepage, novel,
technical report etc.
Format
Data representation of the resource such as
text/html, ASCII, or JPEG image etc.
Identifier
String or number to uniquely identify the
resource (e.g. ISBN, ISSN, URL in case of
online resources)
Language
Language of intellectual content of the resource
GFIS Information
Provider
GFIS Metadata Elements (II)
Optional DC fields:
DC Description
Contributor
Persons or organisations in addition to those specified in
the CREATOR element.
Publisher
The entity responsible for the information content
Relation
The relation of this resource to other resources (e.g.
images in a document)
Description
A textual description of the resource
Source
A string used to identify the work from which this
resource was derived.
Date
The date the resource was made available in its present
form.
Coverage
Spatial or temporal characteristics of the resource (e.g.
country, region etc.)
Rights
Link to a copy right notice
GFIS Information Provider
Why GFIS needs a thesaurus…
Information experts have found that better consistency is obtained if
standards are used for controlling the terms in an information
repository. The use of consistent terms by both contributors and
users helps to improve the chances of users locating all documents
relevant to their interest within the GFIS system.
A multilingual thesaurus:
• Allows users to search on keywords in their own language;
• Allows indexers to assign keywords in their own language;
• Describes each concept with a keyword in each language;
• Provides a systematic display of the descriptors, simplifying
navigation through the terminology;
• Facilitates development of closely-focussed search strategies
What is a Multilingual Forestry
Thesaurus?
A thesaurus is a hierarchical controlled
vocabulary, meaning that the terms within the
vocabulary are somehow related to each other.
A multilingual forestry thesaurus contains terms
that are used in the forestry domain in as many
languages as the stakeholders deem
appropriate.
This is an example, taken from the GEneral Multilingual Environmental Thesaurus (GEMET):
afforestation
BAQ: oihaneztatze; oihantze; baso-sartze
BUL: Залесяване
DAN: tilplantning
DUT: bosaanplanting
USA: afforestation
FIN: metsitys, metsän istuttaminen
FRE: boisement
GER: Aufforstung
GRE: αναδάσωση
HUN: erdosítés
ITA: forestazione
NOR: skogreisning
POR: florestação
RUS: облесение
SLO: zalesňovanie
SLV: pogozdovanje
SPA: repoblación forestal
SVE: skogsodling; skogsplantering
Definition: 1) Establishment of a new forest by seeding or planting of nonforested land. 2) The planting
of trees on land which was previously used for other uses than forestry. 3) The planting of trees in an
area, or the management of an area to allow trees to regenerate or colonize naturally, in order to produce
a forest. (Source: MGH / WRIGHT / ALL)
Broader Terms: forestry
Narrower Terms: reforestation,local afforestation
Words, words, words….
In a collaborative project with major
stakeholders, GFIS proposes to develop a
multilingual forestry thesaurus whereby
different terminologies can be linked.
GFIS Information Provider
A GFIS Information Provider is an institution
or individual that collects and maintains
forest-related information and accompanying
metadata that meet the criteria of the GFIS
collection policy. Providers submit metadata
records through GFIS Service Centres. To be
integrated to GFIS system, the metadata can
be converted to GFIS-Dublin Core metadata
by using GFIS conversion tool.
GFIS Service Centre
The GFIS Service Centre is a GFIS partner
institution that collects, maintains and manages
GFIS metadata submitted by information
provider(s) or others. Service Centres may also
collect information about information providers,
organizations, events and activities within their
region.
GFIS Service Centres
Name of GFIS Service
Centre
Country
Organisation hosting a GFIS
Service Centre
Central Africa Service
Centre
Gabon
Association pour le
Development de l'Information
Environmentale (ADIE/REIMP)
Sahelian West Africa
Service Centre
Senegal
Centre National de Recherche
Forestieres (CNRF)-ISRA
Coastal West Africa
Service Centre
Ghana
Forest Research Institute of
Ghana (FORIG)
Southern Africa Service
Centre
Zimbabwe
Forestry Research
Commission, Zimbabwe (FRC)
GFIS Information Server
(GFIS Management Unit)
International
International Union of Forest
Research Organizations
(IUFRO)
Eastern Africa Service
Centre
Kenya
Kenya Forestry Research
Institute (KEFRI)
NBII-GFIS Service Centre
United States of
America
National Biological
Information Infrastructure
(NBII)
FORREX GFIS Service
Centre
Canada
FORREX Forest Research
Extension Partnership
GFIS Organisation
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GFIS Consortium
Interim GFIS Steering Group
GFIS Management Unit
GFIS Service Centres
GFIS Information Providers
Case Study: Using GFIS
for
Forest Plantation
Management
A forest plantation
manager in Ghana is
interested in growing an
indigenous species and is
seeking information on
site conditions required
for Milicia excelsa,
commonly known as
Odum, Mvule and Iroko.
Milicia is considered to be
the most useful timber
species in Africa.
The manager accesses GFIS through
www.gfis.net
…enters the basic search page…
…types in “Milicia” and selects specific
information providers.
His search results in 45 metadata
records.
He selects several records of interest and
stores them in his GFIS Basket.
He then e-mails them to himself for future
reference.
The GFIS Principles I
To promote accessibility, credibility, quality and
permanence of forest information, GFIS adheres to the
following principles:
• GFIS emphasizes partnerships, cross-sectoral and
international, to develop skills, for technology transfer,
and to maximize the value of all forest information
resources and providers, worldwide.
• Visibility of global forest information through GFIS is
simple, equitable and timely for all.
The GFIS Principles II
• Agreed standards are followed to ensure that a
consistent level of quality and relevance is achieved
to serve the needs of GFIS users.
• The protection of intellectual property rights,
confidentiality and security is held in the highest
regard.
• As a global network of distributed information
resources, GFIS information providing organizations
maintain full identity throughout the search and
retrieval process and retain managerial control of
their information.
Thank you
for
your attention!