[Taxacom] progress on globalnames.org

[Jim Croft]

I absolutely agree with you Paddy that experience has been that
taxonomy moves in decadal time scales because there is just so much of
it and as you point out political will and social structures have not
always been on our side.

Now, as you also point out, large chunks of necessary framework are
already in place, so I am really hoping we can move quickly on the
'content'.

Much of the Australian (and global) 'content' is still physically
scattered on paper and specimens in the libraries, herbaria and
museums of the world.  Mobilizing all of this digitally is huge job
and there are indeed many decades of work in it.   But if we can apply
many hands and smart ways of doing things hopefully the task can be
completed quickly.

Points on comprehensiveness, quality and authority are well taken.
This aspect will and must go on forvever.

jim

On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 6:55 AM, David Patterson <dpatterson at eol.org> wrote:
> The reason for suggesting a decade or so is not because of technological
> constraints. The architecture and tools are being assembled today.  Agencies
> such as GBIF, EOL, nomenclators and the like can and do invest in a semantic
> names architecture, and through a variety of workshops dozens of skilled
> bio-informaticians have contributed their wisdom and enthusiasm.
>
> Rather, the rate of progress to achieving a comprehensive, authoritative,
> and effective names architecture is all about political will, and the social
> challenges of engaging all of the key players rather than having to reinvent
> wheels, and the relocation of resources to finance the transformation.
>
> There is no difficulty to embed, say, the names of Australia's biota within
> this architecture within much less than two years, and for a very small
> fraction of the $30M.  The challenge is extend this to the full spectrum of
> our needs inclusive of the quality and authority we seek.
>
> I would rather not defend the decadal statement, but my experiences over the
> last 9 years suggest that this is realistic.  If we can mobilize enthusiasm,
> resources to achieve a comprehensive names architecture within the next few
> years, I for one would be delighted - because then we can get back to the
> real biology.
>
> Paddy
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Jim Croft
> Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 10:17 AM
> To: Roderic Page
> Cc: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] progress on globalnames.org
>
> Yesterday $30million was flagged in the Australian budget to enhance
> the Atlas of Living Australia, over two (!) years.  I  would be very
> surprised indeed if a major push on a list of known taxa and their
> names and associated information is not going to be a major part of
> this.
>
> Decadal time scales are no really going to cut it with governments who
> need something to show within a single electoral cycle.
>
> Two years is totally scary and we are definitely going to have to look
> at alternative approaches to sourcing, evaluating and capturing the
> data.
>
> jim
>
> On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 5:04 PM, Roderic Page <r.page at bio.gla.ac.uk> wrote:
>> 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
>> Tel: +44 141 330 4778
>> Fax: +44 141 330 2792
>> AIM: rodpage1962 at aim.com
>> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1112517192
>> Twitter: http://twitter.com/rdmpage
>> Blog: http://iphylo.blogspot.com
>> Home page: http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/rod.html
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> _________________
> Jim Croft ~ jim.croft at gmail.com ~ +61-2-62509499 ~
> http://www.google.com/profiles/jim.croft
>
> "Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality."
> - Joseph Conrad, author (1857-1924)
>
> "I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said,
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>



-- 
_________________
Jim Croft ~ jim.croft at gmail.com ~ +61-2-62509499 ~
http://www.google.com/profiles/jim.croft

"Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality."
- Joseph Conrad, author (1857-1924)

"I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said,
but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."
 - attributed to Robert McCloskey, US State Department spokesman