Before you start:
Visit the GBIF portal (new window) and browse/search to experience it for yourself.
How to Become an NBII-GBIF Data Provider:
Download and read documentation (PDF) on becoming an NBII-GBIF Data Provider.
From GBIF's website: http://www.gbif.org/DataProviders/HowTo
GBIF's main service is the global distributed network of databases containing primary biodiversity data. This is data on specimens in biological collections and observations of plants and animals in nature. Such data always have some common attributes, such as scientific name, location, and date of collection. Therefore they can easily be recasted into a common data exchange format (Darwin Core), and shared with the world using the DiGIR protocol.
Steps:
1. Acquire a normal PC and place it safely outside your institution's firewall.
2. Choose and download a data provider package.
3. Install the package. Define your contact details in the metadata.
4. Link your database(s) to the provider.
5. Register the new provider with the UDDI registry.
GBIF will notify NBII that you've registered your provider/information, and after indexing, your data will be searchable on NBII's data portal, as well as GBIF's. In the meantime, you can test the resource(s) served by the DiGIR provider you just installed using the test search portal application.
In the best case, all the above steps can be completed in one hour, but most likely you will want to prepare your database a bit for this, which can take a little time. Do not hesitate to contact the GBIF Helpdesk (or NBII) if you have any questions on the above steps.
Other Resources:
www.gbif.org
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