[Taxacom] Wikispecies is not a database

[dipteryx at freeler.nl]

Obviously I am supporting the assertion that the last thing we need are more top-down database initiatives (but yes, we could do with more bottom-up initiatives).

I am not at all sure how what Wikispecies claims to be doing relates to what it actually is doing, but what it is doing is building a unique classification, a Tree-of-Life, down to species level. It thus distinguishes itself from Wikipedia, which should offer encyclopedic content, rather than build new things.

Thus, the role Wikispecies has chosen for itself is a very narrow one; theoretically (depending on the quality and quantity of its collaborators) it could offer a huge checklist of accepted taxa. This would be of at least some value to the world (even as no more than just a quick-and-dirty directory), although obviously, even if functions optimally it will tend to be brittle (offering a single classification where in reality there often will exist two or more equally likely views).

The single most useful improvement that Wikispecies could adopt is to be more clear, firstly about what it is doing, and secondly about what, or whose, classification is adopted in particular cases.

Paul van Rijckevorsel