Spelling detection and correction in Taxonomic Databases

[Steve at]

What a bleak picture.  A system so complex that the only way to make it work
is to actually view the exact words as published by anyone, at any time
since 1758, in almost any type of publication.  And if we don't go back to
1758 there is a very good chance someone else will and thus invalidate all
of our hard work.  And we seem to accept, with minimal complaint, that it
will cost millions and millions of dollars just to capture what's happened
up to now and that's just how it has to be (and always will be forever into
the future).  Why would you want to stick so tightly to such a system?
There most certainly must be a better way.  If there isn't then we're either
not as cleaver as we think we are or we ARE like the monks, hand-writing our
texts and telling Gutenberg that his "printing press-thingy" will never
catch on and we don't want anything to do with it, thank you very much.

The core of the problem seems to be that individual taxonomists don't need a
world list of all taxa.  Most work on a relatively small group (a family or
set of genera) and it's fairly easy to learn these groups (that's what
Ph.D.'s get you).  To be a successful taxonomist you don't need to actively
contribute to the global picture, just your little corner of it.  And if
someone in another corner doesn't know about your work it doesn't really
matter:  the Codes say that anything published counts, no matter how obscure
the source.

The solution to this problem will require at least two things: cultural
change and loss of freedom.  Our cultural practices will need to change
because we CANNOT continue to do things the way we've done them in the past
- it's just not working.  And we will be forced to give up some freedoms if
we really want to be a global community rather than a series of isolated
individuals working in our own little vacuums.  For better or worse, the
Global Community is growing very rapidly and the Web has changed the way we
communicate and share information forever.  We have a number of choices:
continue the way we've been going for the past 250 years and stop
complaining about it or change our work practices to meet the challenges and
opportunities that exist today.

We don't need to through the baby out with the bath water, but we certainly
need to change the bath water!


Steve Shattuck
CSIRO Entomology
Steve.shattuck at csiro.au