Systematics...an environmental perspective

[Buz Wilson - Australian Museum]

Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 08:55:48
To: Joost Romeu <joost at SIRIUS.COM>
From: Buz Wilson - Australian Museum <buz at extro.ucc.su.oz.au>
Subject: Re: Systematics...an environmental perspective

At 12:38 PM 3/17/96 -0800, Joost Romeu wrote:
>I'm following the discussion of systematics with great interest and
>expectation...hoping that I might learn more about how taxonomy/systematics
>is conducted in the contemporary real world. But what I'm reading leaves me
>more with questions - than positive expectations.

>Please forgive me if I seem slightly impatient.
>- I'm worried. Given the conservative political climate, the interests of
>the status quo seem very well served by a situation in which taxonomists
>are bickering over whether they want to use paper or pixel.
...

This concern is misplaced.  The discussions on Taxacom are no more minutiae
or unimportant than the discussion that take place among engineers planning
to buil a bridge. Politicians are not interested in the details, they just
want the bridge. The recent discussions, although open to anyone, are
largely about the problems that the systematic community faces with new
technolgies, and how best to exploit them. The posters on the list want to
build the bridge between systematic research and the current
political/economic/ecological/etc reality, but they also wish to avoid
losing information in the long term, which is essential for the conduct of
systematic research. The "crystal ball" of future technologies is murky, so
naturally folks have been mulling it over quite a bit.  As an ecologist, you
want accurate identification and evolutionary data on the species in your
system.  Recent posters are actively working to insure this, by discussing
ways making systematic information widely available.  If you don't like the
details of a taxonomic engineering discussion, please ask questions that are
interesting to you.  Someone might have something useful or interesting to
contribute.

Otherwise, just wait a bit, and someone will figure out the best way to
build that bridge you want.  Keep it up everyone.  While I haven't been
following every single detail of recent postions on electronic publication
of names, these discussion are essential to forming a consensus on how to do
it.  We may not reach consensus here, but at least the exploration of the
issue will help develop it.

Cheers,

Buz Wilson
Australian Museum