"Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG)" (formerly The International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases) is a non profit scientific and educational association that is affiliated with the International Union of Biological Sciences. The organisation was formed to establish international collaboration to promote the wider and more effective dissemination of information about the World's heritage of biological organisms for the benefit of the world at large.

TDWG now:

1. develops, adopts and promotes standards and guidelines for the recording, discovery, exchange and integration of data about organisms
2. promotes their use through the most appropriate and effective means, and
3. acts as a forum for discussion about biodiversity informatics
   Biodiversity Informatics
   Biodiversity Informatics is the application of informatics techniques to biodiversity information for improved management, presentation, discovery, exploration and analysis...
   
    standards.

The Taxonomic

Taxonomy

Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...

 Databases Working Group

Working Group

Working Group can mean:*Working group, an interdisciplinary group of researchers; or*Working Group , kennel club designation for certain purebred dog breeds; or...

 was founded in 1985. The original name no longer reflects its current role and the name has recently been changed (with only the TDWG acronym remaining).

Key projects that use TDWG standards

• The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• The Encyclopedia of Life
• The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA)
• The Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS)
• Online Zoological Collections of Australian Museums (OZCAM)
• Mammal Networked Information System (MaNIS)