[Taxacom] progress on globalnames.org

[Tony.Rees at csiro.au]

Dear Pete, all,

What you are proposing is something I have been anticipating to eventuate out of uBio / NameBank / Eol / GBIF / Cat of Life or some combination of the above, so (with respect) I think it is not a decision that can be taken unilaterally by one worker at one agency with unstated permanence / resourcing / long term support / community buy-in etc. etc. My feeling is that such a key central resource needs a rock solid hosting and ongoing governance structure for the future so should probably be a high priority topic for discussion at e-Biosphere. Nobody doubts that taxon concepts are the way to go (hence all the global and regional "species information" sites - you want to attach the species related info to the taxon concept, not every name) - however there are still residual problems of either lumping or splitting through time, regional or other misidentifications, and differences of opinion regarding circumscription (lumpers, splitters, and taxonomic reallocations of subsidiary taxa).

I for one look forward to this being a hot topic next month in London...

Regards - Tony

Tony Rees
Manager, Divisional Data Centre,
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research,
GPO Box 1538,
Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia
Ph: 0362 325318 (Int: +61 362 325318)
Fax: 0362 325000 (Int: +61 362 325000)
e-mail: Tony.Rees at csiro.au
Manager, OBIS Australia regional node, http://www.obis.org.au/ 
Biodiversity informatics research activities: http://www.cmar.csiro.au/datacentre/biodiversity.htm
Personal info: http://www.fishbase.org/collaborators/collaboratorsummary.cfm?id=1566


-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Peter DeVries
Sent: Friday, 15 May 2009 8:02 AM
To: David Remsen (GBIF)
Cc: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu; Tim Robertson
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] progress on globalnames.org

I think that the effort to organize information about species has been
moving so slowly in part because of it's focus on names. Our goal is to
organize information about species, names are just the handle that we use to
tag a species.

The efforts would go much more quickly if we create identifiers for species
concepts and then point the various names to that identifier.

I did a check via Google Scholar for papers published this year that mention
the *Puma concolor*, and *Felis concolor.*
*
*
Both of these names for the same species are still being used.

It would make sense to mint global URI for that species concept and then tag
all papers, images, observations to that species concept.

As these documents are being processed, more and more information will be
tied to that identifier.

Identifiers for "good" species could be created quickly. New observations
could start to be tagged with that identifier along with whatever name the
recorder would like to use. e.g. Aedes/Ochlerotatus

These concepts could be mapped to the GNI data in the following way

http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p  *hasNameID*
http://globalnames.org/name_strings/3165624
http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p  *hasNameID*
http://globalnames.org/name_strings/505310
http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p  *hasNameID*
http://globalnames.org/name_strings/10330292
http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p  *hasNameID*
http://globalnames.org/name_strings/6689244
http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p  *hasNameID*
http://globalnames.org/name_strings/3169574
http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p  *hasNameID*
http://globalnames.org/name_strings/10568463
http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p  *hasNameID*
http://globalnames.org/name_strings/12104361
http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p  *hasNameID*
http://globalnames.org/name_strings/1758834
http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p  *hasNameID*
http://globalnames.org/name_strings/11818218

I have not had much success getting this idea accepted in a number of these
communities.

So I have a proposal. Let my group start making species concept identifiers.
If this concept is adopted, I have succeeded in proving my point. If this
concept fails, then I am wrong. Either way, we should have an answer by the
end of the decade.

Respectfully,

- Pete

P.S. This is not about changing the system of binomial nomenclature, it is
about tying data together so we can start to address the world's problems in
a efficient manner. Binomial nomenclature stays. ;-)
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