message to delegates and federations

[Furien]

The secretary of the UIS sent the message which had been prepared in June by the UIS Informatics Commission (UISIC). The objective is to invite the federations to contribute to Grottocenter and to establish an agreement with the Wikicaves association in order to effectively protect the cavies
This message invites you to contribute to this forum

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To: All National Speleological Organisations UIS-WikiCaves sub-commission
CC: UIS Country Delegates UIS Informatics Commission
2022-06-10
Dear fellow cavers,
Data protection for sensitive caves
As you may know, UIS has been co-operating with the WikiCaves GrottoCenter global cave database since the
International Congress of Speleology (ICS) in 2013, and then in 2016 the UIS General Secretary sent you a letter asking
you to advise GrottoCenter of any restrictions that your country needed on the display of data for any caves of your
country in its database, particularly for sensitive caves. Only a few countries responded, and currently no countries have
restrictions on the display of their data. We are therefore sending this reminder letter to you (apologies if you already
responded in 2016).
One of the aims of UIS is the responsible sharing of cave and karst data for the furtherance of speleology. GrottoCenter is
helping that aim, and to do so responsibly GrottoCenter has been given a grant by UIS to modify its software so that it
can better accommodate country requirements for caves with locations that need to be protected for legal, scientific or
cultural reasons. The initial modification work has already been done, the aim being to have something useful working
for this year's ICS.
In the interests of effective cave protection, we would appreciate your prompt response to the following :
• Your country's protection requirements, if any, for the location and/or publication of information for all caves
from your country that are in the database.
• Your country's requirements for caves that need some protection for legal, scientific or cultural reasons by
restricting location and/or other information about them in the database.
• Your advice of any sensitive caves already in the database that should be removed or their information
changed.
Some countries have more than one national organisation so we ask you to consolidate your requirements through your
UIS Delegate who can then send them to GrottoCenter via Didier BORG <dcborg@aol.com>. We have set up a forum
where any issues related to this updating of GrottoCenter can be discussed, and you are encouraged to join, even if just
to keep up with developments: viewforum.php?f=10
Wikicaves would aim to set up an MOU with your national organisation to take into account the specific data protection
requirements of your country.
Initially, the protection method adopted on the GrottoCenter site will consist of NOT displaying or providing location
data for caves which you have listed as ‘sensitive‘, but other solutions may be adopted later.
We would also encourage you to send us data of your caves while, if necessary, removing or adapting any sensitive data
before you send. This will allow the whole caving and scientific community to benefit from your hard-won data. We
accept bulk data as well - please contact Didier. Conversely, if there is any data already in the database that you want
removed or changed, please let Didier know.
In addition to the above immediate work on GrottoCenter for its existing caves, the UIS Informatics Commission is
commencing a project to establish and publish "UIS guidelines for responsible cave data sharing". This will cover both
sharing of data for the benefit of speleology, and how to protect the data of sensitive caves. It is important that this
document accommodates the needs of your country, so you are encouraged to participate in this project too. Join up via
its discussion forum on the UISIC website : viewforum.php?f=8. The
GrottoCenter project in this letter is for immediate commonsense changes to its database for existing caves, while the
Guidelines project aims to formalise and publish UIS recommendations for techniques and organisation after wide
canvassing of opinion and needs. Obviously GrottoCenter would then adapt to these Guidelines. In addition, the UIS
Karst and Cave Protection Commission have a cave and karst legal status worldwide assessment in progress.
For further information and inquiries please contact the UIS-Wikicaves sub-commission leader, Didier Borg
<dcborg@aol.com>, who will be happy to answer your questions. We are looking forward to your collaboration in order
to promote responsible sharing of speleological information among the global cave and karst community.
Didier BORG, UIS-WikiCaves sub-commission
Peter MATTHEWS, UIS Informatics Commission

[Peter Matthews]

You can download a PDF of the actual letter at this post in the project's forum:
viewtopic.php?t=25