Account of the first ICTV virus data sub-committee workshop on database descriptions Doorn, The Netherlands, 30th Januar
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Account of t h e f i r s t I C T V v i r u s data sub-committee w o r k s h o p on database descriptions Doorn, The Netherlands, 30th January - 4th February 1994
Participants: Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. I~. Dr. Guests:
Lois Blaine (LB), USA Cornelia Buchen-Osmond (CBO), Australia Charles Calisher (CC), USA Mike Dallwitz (MD), Australia Tony Della-Porta (TD), Australia Adrian Gibbs (AG), Australia Marian Horzinek (MH), The Netherlands Brian Mahy (BM), USA Jack Maniloff (JM), USA Mike Mayo (MM), UK Fred Murphy (FM), USA
Dr. F. MacIntyre, ETI, Amsterdam Dr. R. Sluys, ETI, Amsterdam Dr. E. Gouda, Hortus botanicus, Utrecht
Location and sponsorship of the workshop The workshop took place in Opleidingscentrum Bondsspaarbanken, Doom. It was made possible because of sponsorship by (in alphabetical order): Bayer, Codata, EFFEM, European Union, IUMS, Merck, Roche and Virology Division.
Structure of the workshop To illustrate the use of databases in other fields, LB described the Bergey's Bacterial Database, Dr. Sluys described the production by ETI of a range of biology databases, MD described the use of the DELTA language to generate databases of grasses and beetle larvae, and AG described the plant virus database developed using DELTA. These gave a background to discussion of how the universal virus database (UVD) should be structured. These discussions by the whole VDSC aired many issues and were followed by the division of the task of finalizing descriptor lists into small groups. The descriptors generated or selected by these groups were then presented to the whole VDSC for discussion. The salient features of the various discussions and presentations are grouped under general topic headings. Actions decided on are grouped at the end of the Report.
Virology Division News
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l. Presentations LB - The Bergey bacterial database Bergey's is a private trust. Book sales generate enough income to finance the database. The purpose of the database is primarily to facilitate production of the hard copy descriptions. Text and Tables are supplied by volunteers. These are converted to RKC codes by fitting to standard descriptors. The contributors confirm the assignments and these are then entered using MICROIS. Williams and Wilkins fund Dr. M. Krichevsky to improve MICROIS and ATCC to do parsing and vocabulary assignment. The royalties from the Bergey's Manuals finance this. Williams and Wilkins own the format but Bergey's Trust own the data. Dr. R. Sluys - ETI database Funded by a combination of UNESCO, Dutch Government and University of Amsterdam money, ETI are constructing a 'biodiversity database'. ETI employ about 10 taxonomists and 10 programmers and work by using group editors to contact experts whom they supply with Linnaeus II software. The software did not seem as sophisticated as DELTA. The products made are CD ROM. It was suggested that this format might be more useful for 3rd World countries than book products. This method can be cheaper for supplying colour pictures than traditional hard copy. MD
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