Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference

Biodiversity data management is achieved via a single, correct, authoritative version. Other than inclusion of a few fields to preserve “verbatim” versions of key information, in largest part, current protocols in managing biodiversity data do not preserve the “lineage” of previous versions of information, much less the attribution of who did what and when. A collaborative effort between the Institute for Information Sciences and the Biodiversity Institute at the University of Kansas has been exploring blockchain-based technology solutions as a means of preserving a much-richer suite of information in the process of creating and managing biodiversity information records, and specifically data records associated with natural history museum specimens. We have developed a working prototype that allows large specimen datasets to be imported, edited, and batch-updated; the system logs all values and changes made to the data, along with information about the specific user who made the changes. User accounts can be created with different levels of permission and supervision. As a consequence, one can now create reports of what has been done by whom over the entire history of a data record. The result is a far-richer suite of information associated with data records in biodiversity informatics.
Co-authors:
Fernando Machado-Stredel, Department of Biology, University of New Mexico;
Ali Khalighifar, Center for Bioimage Informatics, Department of Developmental Neurobiology, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital;
Drew Davidson, Institute for Information Sciences, University of Kansas