DocumentStatus

SDD Part 0: Introduction and Primer to the SDD Standard

Status of this document

Version: 7 September 2006

Edited: Kevin Thiele and Donovan Sharp (Centre for Biological Information Technology, University of Queensland) with financial support from TDWG and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Complete documentation of the SDD Schema is available on the SDD web site.

To contribute to the discussion on the SDD Standard and to comment on this document, please join the SDD Wiki or SDD discussion list.

Aims and Scope of SDD

To develop standard computer-based mechanisms for expressing and transferring descriptive information about biological organisms or taxa (as well as similar entities such as diseases), including terminologies, ontologies, descriptions, identification tools and associated resources.

Aims and Scope of this Primer

SDD Part 0 Introduction and Primer is intended as a non-normative guide to the intent, structure and correct usage of the SDD data standard. It has two main audiences: users with a strong IT background but perhaps with a limited understanding of taxonomy and taxonomic practices, and users with a strong taxonomic background but perhaps with a limited understanding of IT (particularly of issues relating to XML data structures and schemas).

Note that the Primer does not provide an introduction to XML. Users who are unfamiliar with XML technologies should refer to the W3C XML Primer.

The Primer is intended as an introduction only. It is expected that users planning to support SDD in applications will need to become thoroughly conversant with the schema itself and its normative documentation.

Relationship between SDD and other TDWG standards

TDWG maintains and is developing other standards that relate to the SDD standard, including the Access to Biological Collections Data (ABCD) and Taxonomic Concept Names standards. TDWG is developing a common, shared base schema for SDD and these related schemas, called UBIF.

SDD Version History

Version 0.9 beta: released for comment December 2003.

Version 1.0 beta: released August 2004

Version 1.0 was ratified at the TDWG St. Petersburg Meeting in September 2005

Version 1.1: Version 1.1 of SDD was developed during a meeting of the group in April 2006 to fix some minor problems identified with Version 1.0.

It is currently recommended that all SDD implementations be based on this version 1.1

This Primer complies with SDD1.1(RC2)

KevinThiele - 11 Sep 2006

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