[Taxacom] progress on globalnames.org

[Donat Agosti]

I agree with Rod, this can't be accepted to think in such long ranges.

I think, there ought be much more strategic thinking in this.  Eg the
Biodivlibrary should not randomly (from a taxonomic point of view) scan in
stuff, but target specific groups. Taxonomic experts should be able to apply
for slots that would cover all their literature. This does not mean to scan
one reprint after the other, but rather serials that include the largest
number of papers. The collaterals, others papers not covering the target
group, would still be an incentive for others to comprehend, what a
tremendous resource this is.

For me this sort of decadal or grand thinking seems to be completely off or
decoupled from a research strategy that asks questions and the finds way to
solve them, including the building up of the necessary IT infrastructure and
content.
It is rather infused by Google creating in our community and funding agency
the misunderstood desire to create the mother system of all the biodiversity
information.

It is similar to planning to fly to Mars, but without the billions of
dollars to spend.

So, what we need is strategic thinking coupled with tools that allow editing
and linking data in a very efficient way that will essentially lead to data
that can be used new insights and knowledge. Only this will lead to a
community that is willing to chip in their efforts and shorten the time
substantially.

Donat
  

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Roderic Page
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 11:34 AM
To: David Patterson
Cc: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] progress on globalnames.org

Am I the only horrified by this timescale?

On 12 May 2009, at 16:45, David Patterson wrote:

>
> Expectation management:  How long before this all operational? Best  
> to think
> decadally.
>

Why can't we have this sooner? Like, *cough*, now? Is it crazy to  
suggest that if all these names were dumped in a wiki, together with  
annotations (e.g., links to literature), any our community set about  
adding/annotating/cleaning, we could have this done rather sooner...?

Rod



---------------------------------------------------------
Roderic Page
Professor of Taxonomy
DEEB, FBLS
Graham Kerr Building
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK

Email: r.page at bio.gla.ac.uk
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