GEO BON regards development of a global infrastructure in support of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) as one of its main objectives. To realise the goal, an understanding of the context within which such an infrastructure needs to operate is important (for instance, it is part of a larger drive towards research data infrastructures in support of open science?) and the information technology applicable to such infrastructures needs to be considered. The EBVs are likely to require very

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... ific implementation guidelines once the community has defined them in detail. In the interim it is possible to anticipate the likely architecture for a GEO BON infrastructure, and to provide guidance to individual researchers, institutions, and regional or global initiatives in respect of best practice. The best practice guidelines cover general aspects applicable to all research infrastructures, the use of persistent identifiers, interoperability guidelines in respect of vocabularies, data services and meta-data management, and advice on the use of global infrastructure services and/or federated, standards-based implementations.