The World Porifera Database (WPD), the Database of all Recent sponges ever described, is part of the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), a global initiative that aims to register all the species of marine organisms.
In December 2004, the first sponge data were entered by Rob van Soest and by the data management of WoRMS. Since then, a group of volunteer taxonomic specialists joined the WPD and continued entering new data and improving the already existed ones. Since the beginning, the Aphia Platform of WoRMS was continuously being improved. This means that the Editors have to constantly learn how to use the new tools and this is not always obvious. Consequently, some Editors frequently have problems with the general functioning of the WoRMS tools. Therefore, after all these years of the WPD, it is time for a meeting of all the Editors to standardize their actions, to learn together the new available tools and to improve the database.
This training will make them more at ease with the online platform, and provide them a well-structured environment through the OceanTeacher platform to look up editing details and tips & tricks on how to do certain online actions. Editors will go through the online training material at their own pace, followed by a number of online sessions with the Data Management Team for Q&A on the available training material, and open discussions on the way forward for the World Porifera Database.
As this online training, in combination with live online sessions with the Data Management Team is the first of its kind, it will be thoroughly evaluated afterwards. This will allow the Data Management Team to fine-tune it, and – in due course – open it to other editor groups within the Aphia & WoRMS editor community.
 
Aims
 
The aims link directly with the above information:

• Teach the editors how to work with the online editing interface, based on the training material available through the OceanTeacher e-Learning Platform
• Focus on a number of gaps: original descriptions, distributions, images
• Quality control reference information
• Relationship with users
• Plan the future of the World Porifera Database

Contact: World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS): info@marinespecies.org