Franck Theeten1, Patricia Mergen1, Olivier Bakasanda2, Jörg Holetschek3, Patricia Kelbert3, Motonobu Kasajima2, Garin Cael1, Charles Kahindo4

1 Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium; 2 Centre de Documentation de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche de Kinshasa (CEDESURK), Kinshasa, DR Congo; 3 Botanischer Garten und Botanischer Museum (BGBM), Berlin; 4 Université Officielle de Bukavu (OUB), Bukavu, RD Congo

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Since 2008, the Royal Museum of Central Africa is carrying out the CABIN (Central African Biodiversity Information Network) with the support of the Belgian Directorate General for Development Cooperation. It is aimed at easing access to biodiversity data published on the Internet for researchers from Central Africa, as well as the publication of data from local datasets to biodiversity networks such as GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility). In March 2009, a first mission has been carried out at the CEDESURK (an academic library, resource centre and provider of IT services for the main Congolese academic institutions) where the first part of a technical infrastructure for accessing and publishing data has been implemented. In order to facilitate the maintenance of this infrastructure as well as the integration of local biologists and IT scientists into existing scientific networks and communities, tools and software developed within the framework of existing projects and well-known standards such as ABCD (Access to Biological Collection Data) and DarwinCore have been used.

Data portal Data publisher

Language Functionnality Status

Presentation XML (Kid templating)

-Layout

-Internationalization

-Customized for CABIN

Logic tier Python/Ajax/ XML-RPC

-Query engine to the central database

-Distribution of the queries to decentralized ABCD/DarwinCore providers in order to get additional information

-Configuration files modified (gathered in a central folder)

Database MySQL -Container for the basic specimen information

-Registry of the access points coordinates of the linked ABCD/DarwinCore providers

-Structure of the original portal database kept. -Content updated for CABIN (’Slices’ from the central GBIF database with focus on African )

Application server

Database

To improve the access of researchers from Central Africa to biodiversity data, a portal based on the BIOCASE portal (Biological Collection Access Service for Europe) has been installed at the CEDESURK facilities. It integrates the infrastructure of the Eb@lé project which reinforces the Internet backbone of academic institutions from Congo DR.

The basic structure of the application and source database have been retained while the query interface has been customized by the adaptation of multilingual presentation templates.

The production of the source database (a subset of African data coming from GBIF) and the installation of the portal have been made with support from the BGBM which also developed the original application. A good collaboration between research institutions having complementary expertise and geographical coverage allowed the reuse of an existing application with a minimal amount of technical adjustments.

http://cabin.ebale.cd

A BioCASe Provider Software has been also installed at the CEDESURK in order to publish data. Its integrated QueryTool is being used as an interface for the local scientists, again after having customized the original presentation templates in order to better visualize multimedia content.

CABIN also plans to extend this infrastructure with other data providers (such as the GBIF IPT) in the coming years of the project.

In 2010, CABIN will issue a call in order to identify the local researchers who could be interested in publishing their data on the Internet through this platform. The project will also provide support and training to enable maintenance of the infrastructure by local institutions. These training sessions will introduce IT scientists working in regional research and academic institutions to the development and integration of web services able to provide and consume scientific metadata in XML and/or RDF format. Finally they also aim to create a context where biologists and IT scientists could meet and facilitate the development of multidisciplinary scientific teams.

Language Functionnality

Presentation XSL-T(‘XML Stylesheet Language – Transformation’)

-Layout of the internal query tool (integration of multimedia content and link to high resolution images).

Logic tier Python -Mapping of the source database to eschange standards (ABCD, DarwinCore, Taxon Concpet Schema, etc…)

-Set up of an access point for GBIF indexation

Database Several data providers available

-Contains the basic specimen information

Database

XSL-T

Application server

Examples of Butterfly collection (Albertine Rift area) submitted

to GBIF by the means of a

BIOCASE/PyWrapper provider installed at

the RMCA (case study for CABIN)

Copyright: Ugo Dall’Asta, Jacqueline Havugimana, Anne

Franklin

Contact infos:

sabin@africamuseum.be