The “International e-Conference on Germplasm Data Interoperability” will take place between December 6th and December 20^th, 2013. The aim of this e-Conference is to bring in contact stakeholders in the area of plant germplasm and traits and discuss the current status of the interoperability between the different data sources and resources, such as the metadata schemas and classification systems used. In this direction, it aims to focus on the linked data approach to be followed in order to enable the linking of data from heterogeneous data sources and in various data formats.

The e-Conference will consist of both synchronous and asynchronous sessions, facilitating the engagement of participants in both online and offline discussions and including real-time presentations using web-based tools. The event is jointly organized by Bioversity International, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Agro-Know Technologies and supported by the agINFRA EU project. Major players in the biodiversity area, including the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), EURISCO and GENESYS will be invited and involved, along with the Agricultural Data Interoperability Interest Group of the Research Data Alliance (RDA). The participants will also sessions on germplasm data providers as well as the technical infrastructure need for linking the various germplasm data sources.

According to the tendative agenda, the e-Conference will consist of four (4) sessions, each one of which will be allocated in one week in the aforementioned period:

1. The vision of Linked Germplasm Data (6/12/2013, synchronous)
2. Status of data and metadata for germplasm (11/12/2013, synchronous)
3. Setting up an infrastructure for the Germplasm Data (11-19/12/2013, asynchronous)
4. Semantic standards and metadata needed for bridging the germplasm data to the breeding/in situ/on farm data (20/12/2013, synchronous)

The synchronous sessions will consist of real-time presentations and discussions between the participants while in the case of the asynchronous session, it will consist of a number of presentations available offline, which can be commented and discussed between the participants. The expected audience of this e-Conference is bioinformatics and biodiversity researchers, linked data experts and stakeholders working with linked data.

You can find additional information at the e-Conference website, including the registration page.