BIOTA   The Biodiversity Database Manager 

Dear Colleagues, 

Thank you again for your inquiry. I hope my delayed reply has not come to late to be useful. 

Before I get into any of the details of your message, I should tell you that Biota 2 is at last in the final stages before publication/release 

by Sinauer Assoc. The application itself is now in its 24th beta version, quite stable, used productively by 50 beta testers in 10 

countries, ranging from single user applications to some major client/server installations (e.g. New Zealand Landcare, California 

Academy of Sciences Entomology Dept.). 

Meanwhile, Biota 1 continues to be used (and to be purchased), with about 1000 copies sold, and registrants in some 40 countries and 

48 US states. 

The delay in Biota 2 has primarily been the Manual, which is a godawful thing to write...nothing duller or less inspiring than writing a 

software manual. If you know the Biota 1 manual, it was quite extensive (580 pp) and quite pedagogically written, to minimize the 

need for followup training and support, and it was very successful in that regard. 

As it happens, I finally completed the Biota 2 manual on Monday (my self imposed do or die deadline of June 30). It is 870 pages, 

profusely illustrated and hyperlinked, CD only. So the Biota 2 now faces only the normal delays of copyediting and production, and 

Sinauer is quite eager to get it out. 

I tell you all of this because, while the description of Biota you came up with is largely correct, it is also on the verge of being out of 

date. I have attached thre documents to help you get a view of Biota 2: 

(1) The section of the Quickstart chapter for Biota 1 users, outlining what is new in Biota 2. 

(2) An overview chapter (primarily for new users) that briefly outlines all the tools and features of Biota 2. 

(3) An appendix with the schema. 

Note: the hotlinks are not yet linked in these excepts. 

Now to your email:  

> Biota has been identified as one of the important software tools for collection management which should be itemised on this list. So 

far, we have collected the following information from your world wide web site  (http://viceroy.eeb.uconn.edu/Biota). 

>  

>   > Availability and cost 

> Can be ordered from http://www.sinauer.com/BiotaApp (single user) 125USDBiota4D (multiuser)175USD 

Pricing (all US$) for Biota 2 is as follows (you may not want all this but...): 

BiotaApp (single user, stand alone) for for Windows or MacOS $200 

BiotaApp upgrade pricing (for registered users of BiotaApp 1.X), $150.00 

Biota4D (multi user, client/server, requires 4D Server) for Windows or MacOS servers, $300.00 to individuals, $600 to institutions 

Comes with license for two Client connections, additional licenses extra. (Biota4D upgrade pricing not yet decided.) 

>   > Limitations to scalability 

Data Files have a 64 GB limit, but that is several hundred million records, and images in Biota 2 are in external image files (virtually 

any format), transparently linked to thumbnails in the Biota Data File. 

> Standalone single user application BiotaApp can be upgraded to a multuser client server application Biota4D, for this a 4D 

ServerTM or 4th DimensionTM has  has ti be purchased separately 

Correct, but 4D Server is needed for client/server use (4th Dim would simply make it the equivalent of BiotaApp). 

>  

>   > Computing platform limitations or specialization 

> Windows (95/98/NT), Mac OS PPC 

Biota 2: Windows (XP, NT, ME, 2000, or 98) and Macintosh (native OS X or OS 9)  

>  

>   > Specialization by taxonomic group 

> All taxa 

>  

>   > Estimate of size and distribution of user base 

> Installations in 40 countries 

>  

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