Termination of National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII)

As earlier annouced at the whitehouse website, a major budget cut forced the USGS to terminate several initiatives. Among those, all services of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) will be shut down or transferred to yet unknown locations (maybe data.gov). This will happen at January 15, 2012 so if you have to work with the NBII services ... hurry up. These are really bad news, as I enjoyed the excellent web services of e.g. ITIS.

For those who want to know what will happen to all the tools, databases and services hosted at the NBII website, here are the FAQ: http://www.nbii.gov/portal/server.pt/community/termination_of_nbii_program/2057/termination_faqs/7650.

Most delicate, this termination will also be a shock for the WDC (now WDS system), as the NBII was also hosting the World Data Center for Biodiversity and Ecology!

UPDATE:

For those who want to know what will happen to ITIS:

"What will happen with related USGS Biological Informatics Programs such as the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), USGS Gap Analysis Program (GAP), and USGS/NPS Vegetation Mapping Program?

The former USGS Biological Informatics Program (now part of the USGS Core Science Analysis and Synthesis Program) is the parent program to the NBII, ITIS, GAP, and the Vegetation Mapping Program. While the NBII Program has been terminated and its funding eliminated, ITIS, GAP, and the Vegetation Mapping Program remain funded activities and will continue to provide high quality data, services, and cyberinfrastructure to collaborators and users."