[Taxacom] Biodiversity websites

[michael.heads at yahoo.com]

There now seem to be hundreds of so-called 'biodiversity' sites that list names and not much else, and are practically worthless (unless you want to make another list...). Some have additional information for a few taxa, sometimes even maps, but often of a very low standard. 

There are some truly awful sites out there - I won't name names but I wish someone would! Has anyone written a review of the most significant sites, with a few lines giving their strengths and weaknesses - something like Frodin's invaluable book 'Guide to the standard floras of the world'? (Tony Rees' 'metasite' is a great step in this direction but doesn't actually review the sites it lists). Or does everyone just have to figure it out for themselves? Sites like GBIF and EOL have major flaws and blind spots as well as strengths, but it takes a while to work out just what they are. (Of course groups such as the birds of the US are always covered brilliantly, but that information is easily available anyway).     

Michael Heads
 
Wellington, New Zealand.

My papers on biogeography are at: http://tiny.cc/RiUE0


--- On Mon, 7/6/09, L Penev <lyubo.penev at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: L Penev <lyubo.penev at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Taxacom] Wikispecies
> To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Date: Monday, July 6, 2009, 5:20 PM
> EOL or Wikispecies? Instead of
> opposing them, I think we have to support
> both major initiatives (as well as several other primary
> and secondary
> aggregators) to ensure maximum dissemination of
> biodiversity information in
> the public domain - something taxonomy really needs  -
> and to recognise the
> fact that both initiatives have their own strengths and
> weaknesses, but
> together combine to create maximum strength. To follow this
> policy, all new
> taxa described in ZooKeys (registered in ZooBank and
> supplied routinely to
> EOL and other aggregators) are already present in
> Wikispecies (thanks to
> Stephen Thorpe). By agreement, in future new taxa will be
> registered by
> Wikispecies within two days after publication.
> 
> Lyubomir Penev
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