Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 15:27:55 -0400
To: windsord@tivoli.si.edu
From: John Pickering
Subject: Mesoamerican technology center to share biodiversity information
Cc: dl@discoverlife.org, gary_alpert@harvard.edu, btorres@gbif.org,
mbounfour@yahoo.com, mbounfour@menara.ma, chung_p2@yahoo.com,
Gladys_Cotter@usgs.gov, EardleyC@arc.agric.za, dgraham@worldbank.org,
agrosse@usgs.gov, fisherjp@state.gov, shubbell@plantbio.uga.edu,
RHuber@oas.org, clydeard@nsf.gov, dmaryati@ums.edu.my,
emata@inbio.ac.cr, praven@nas.edu, l.rogo@bionet-intl.org,
samper.cristian@nmnh.si.edu, s.soetikno@cabi.org, asimpson@usgs.gov,
jsoberon2@yahoo.com, R.SMITH@cabi.org, rstinner@cipm.info,
heike@colpos.colpos.mx, weickkd@aol.com, ewilson@oeb.harvard.edu,
yulu_xia@ncsu.edu

Don,

Would like to bring you and the folks copied on this into the early
planning stages of a regional center to share biodiversity information.
This will be one of 8 international centers that Discover Life is setting
up with Ed Wilson's blessing.

Please read the email below and send me your thoughts on setting up a
center in your neck-of-the-woods. While we can distribute the proposed
centers' functions so that they can give technical support in as many
countries as possible, each center will need a physical home within their
region. I'm seeking input from everyone on how best to do this within
Mesoamerica. Above all, I want everyone to cooperate, keep our
interactions very informal, and avoid the mistake of territoriality.
Discover Life's technology now enables us all to share information and get
credit for our individual data records, images, Web pages, at both the
personal and institutional levels. Witness how folks are working together
to get ants and plants on-line (see http://www.discoverlife.org/pa/ev/me/2005dc).

Forgive me for only copying this email to Conabio, INBio, STRI, IABIN,
BioNet International, and a few others. We're seeking much broader
support. Everyone should feel free to copy this email to whomever they
wish. In short, please bring others into the process.

I'll keep you all posted.

xo

_________________________________________________

John Pickering Office: 706-542-1115
517 Biological Sciences Building Lab.: 706-542-6676
Inst. of Ecology, University of Georgia FAX: 706-542-3344
Athens, GA 30602-2602 Home: 706-353-7076
e-mail: pick@discoverlife.org
URL: http://www.discoverlife.org/who/Pickering,_John.html

_________________________________________________

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