From Oct 8-10th 2013 the 4^th pro-iBiosphere meeting took place at the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem. In total, 87 participants from 15 countries attended the 4 workshops held on:

1. 8 Oct Workshop 1 (M4.1): How to improve technical cooperation and interoperability at the e-infrastructure level (FUB-BGBM). For results from the workshop, see here.

2. 8 Oct Workshop 2 (M4.2): How to promote and foster the development & adoption of common mark-up standards & interoperability between schemas (PLAZI)

3. 9 Oct Workshop 3 (M6.2.2): Workshop on user engagement and benefits (RBGK)

4. 10 Oct Workshop 4 (M6.3.2): Towards sustainability towards service: Meeting to evaluate business models currently in use by partners and relevant non-partners (SIGMA)

Networking

A questionnaire was sent to the participants of the meeting. A total of 87 persons answered the questionnaire. The meeting received an overall positive feedback. The agendas of the workshop and the possibility to network were the strongest attractions for attending. Half of the delegates were able to establish or strengthen 5-10 contacts during the event (see Figure 1). Delegates appreciated the discussions and welcoming atmosphere. Despite that, they mentioned that there could have been more time allocated for each workshop and each break for discussions.

Workshops

Participants expressed their preference to work in small groups with well-defined targets. The need for presentations was very low, provided that the workshops are well focused and give ample time for discussion.

30% of the participants judged the quality of the workshop as high, 31% as very good, 13% as acceptable and 1% as below expectations (see Figure 2).  50% of the participants are interested in attending other pro-iBiosphere events in the future and 64 out of 87 persons would recommend them to colleagues.

Caption: Contacts established by participants during the pro-iBiosphere meeting (first column; clockwise: 38% of the participants were able to make between 5 and 10 contacts, second column: 14% of the participants were able to establish less than 5 contacts, third column: 4% of the participants were not able to establish any contacts, fourth column: 9% of the participants were able to establish more than 10 contacts).