This mini-review paper analyses the achievements of the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), as a distributed global data system and as a community of data contributors and users. We highlight some issues and challenges and identify ways OBIS is trying to address these with developing community standards, protocols and best practices, applying new innovative technologies, improving human capacity through training, and establishing beneficial partnerships. With the release of the second generation of OBIS (OBIS 2.0), we now have a more solid foundation to build improved data processing/integration workflows, new data synthesis routines that add value to OBIS data, and new types of products and applications for scientific and decision-making. The future of OBIS will be in working toward an open and inviting process of co-developing OBIS as a global networked open-source data system that will enable the community to organize, document, and contribute analytical codes that interface directly with OBIS, provide analyses, and share results. The main challenges will be in mobilizing and organizing the scientific community to publish richer and high quality data more rapidly in support of developing robust and timely indicators of status and change on Essential Ocean Variables and Essential Biodiversity Variables.
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