Two Morphbank presentations by Greg Riccardi were presented at this years 2008 tdwg meeting.

The first authored by Greg Riccardi, Austin Mast (Florida State University), Dan Miranker, and Ferner Cilloniz (University of Texas) described a method of linking images and ontologies realized as a combination of two systems: the Morphbank image and metadata repository (http://www.morphbank.net/) and the Morphster ontology illustration and management system (http://www.morphster.org/). Our formal treatment of images allowed us to create an image-driven ontology editor to enable domain experts to build ontologies as a part of the research process.

The second presentation authored by Greg Riccardi (Florida State University) and Boyce Tankersley (Chicago Botanic Garden) details an interoperable information system created that combines the Morphbank image repository, PlantCollections botanical information portal, and several collections management systems. Putting these systems together poses many challenges that are common in biodiversity informatics. Plans are in place to make the system compatible with the TDWG Access Protocol for Information Retrieval (TAPIR). TAPIR compatibility will allow small repositories to be information providers and to allow consumers to feed back information to providers.