Consensus

[David Remsen]

>> Think what you would
>> uncover if you searched for "Ladies tresses" (Spiranthes), etc., etc.
>> Of course, there are still interesting possibilities when using the
>> latin name, as Rod Page mentioned when he introduced his
>> ispecies.org, and I have indeed found  some of these...
>

We have an experimental portal on our new site that is exploring that
sort of thing.  You can start with a vernacular like "ladies tresses"
and navigate through scientific names and use this to search Google,
Yahoo, Medline, etc.   You can also use taxonomies to browse these
resources.  Using Species 2000 to explore Yahoo images is pretty cool
for example.

The other compelling concept is taking advantage of the use of
taxonomic intelligence to navigate large generalized content like
Google or Yahoo to highlight authoritative and expert content via the
space normally set aside for advertisements.  Imagine a person goes
to Google looking for information on "striped bass" and gets an "ad"
pointing to the FishBase record on Morone saxatilis.  Increasing the
visibility of expert sites and content should be a priority.   Try
the spider "Araneus corticarius."  It links to a map from the
Canadian Arachnologist and to the corresponding species 2000 record.
Searching for the cephalopod Loligo pealei provides users with useful
synonyms and misspellings that link to additional Google or Yahoo
content, it also elevates the visibility of CephBase as a source for
additional information.  It pulls OBIS specimen records to generate a
distribution map that link to OBIS data.   I see this sort of
integration as the way to synthesize federated data resources in ways
that the public might find useful.  This is simply experimental and
it will bog down when lots of people hit it but it's a straw man to
beat on.

http://portal.ubio.org/

Shortcuts

Araneus+corticarius
http://portal.ubio.org/index.php?
tnsnav=lists&searchtype=web&map=&start=0&search=Araneus+corticarius

Loligo pealei
http://portal.ubio.org/index.php?
tnsnav=lists&searchtype=web&map=&start=0&search=Loligo+pealei

Browsing Yahoo Images with Species2000
http://portal.ubio.org/index.php?
tnsnav=classifications&search=Loligo&clsID=83&clschildID=2694818

PubMed for Mustelus canis advertising FishBase
http://portal.ubio.org/index.php?
tnsnav=lists&map=&start=0&tnsclient=PubMed&searchtype=&search=Mustelus
+canis


> On another matter, I was corresponding with a colleague in Holland
> who takes students on field trips, and he noted that students no
> longer wanted to learn common names - they got more info about the
> plant in web searches by using the latin name.  Think what you would
> uncover if you searched for "Ladies tresses" (Spiranthes), etc., etc.
> Of course, there are still interesting possibilities when using the
> latin name, as Rod Page mentioned when he introduced his
> ispecies.org, and I have indeed found  some of these...
>
> P.