A PicoReview: INTKEY 5.0 for Win95

[Jim Beach]

A PicoReview:  INTKEY 5.0 for Win95

If you haven't tried the new version of INTKEY from CSIRO Australia which
can run as a helper application with a web browser under Win95, it's worth
a look as it sets a new standard for interactive identification over the
Internet.

I was able to interactively key taxa from a couple of online DELTA files
using Netscape 4.04 to access the base data (I was unable to get Internet
Explorer 4.0 to work properly with INTKEY).  Downloading a DELTA data set
in the browser fires up INTKEY which then retrieves images and additional
data when needed, as you proceed through an identification. The Canadian
Saxifragaceae data set is interesting in that it automatically uses images
to facilitate the identification and scoring of character states.

The ability of a local copy of INTKEY to interact with remote data over the
Internet is an exciting and fundamental step in the development of an
international biodiversity information infrastructure.  Rating: Four Noahs!

It is available from www.biodiversity.uno.edu.


_________________________________________

James H. Beach, Project Director
Electronic Natural History Museum
National Performance Review Reinvention Laboratory
Tel: (703) 319-1173, Fax (703) 648-4224
E-mail:  jbeach at nbii.gov