Softwares for taxonomists

[David at]

To extend awarness of available softwares, it is
worthwhile to remember Platypus
(http://www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/online-resources/software/platypus/)
developed by the Australian Biological Resources Study -
as a system to manage classification schemes,
nomenclatural and associated information.  Particularly
nice because of its 'drag and drop' usefulness.  Its
downside being a PC-only software.

On the matrix keys, we also have XID
http://www.ubio.org/services/key.html - still reported in
development, but shares with Lucid the very brief learning
curve, and has the advantages of being designed for key
construction and key delivery through the internet.
 Coming from the uBio stable, it is also capable of
calling up the nomenclatural, taxonmomic, indexing and
organzing information and services that can be expected to
accompany the emergence of internet-based name servers -
being the core of the uBio project.

And to draw attention to our own activities, one new
service will be a public domain generic template for
biocentric web sites (referred to as star*sites).  The
pilot site for this is micro*scope
(http://microscope.mbl.edu).  Star*software will permit
the quick assembly of assets (information about organisms)
around names and classification schemes, as well as
permitting hierarchical concept browsing.  Star*sites can
be linked together so that distributed teams can work
together on large-scale internet-based projects that have
a pretty good sustainability strategy.  No doubt another
posting will come later to announce release of a test
version and seeking partnerships for bug-finding and
glitch-fixing.



David J Patterson
Bay Paul Center
Marine Biological Laboratory
Woods Hole
Massachusetts 02543
USA