[Taxacom] Google, Wikipedia, and EOL

[Stephen Thorpe]

>if, by "putting" you mean typing content on a keyboard
Well, not quite so simple - I mean putting the content into proper context with everything else ...

________________________________________
From: Richard Pyle [deepreef at bishopmuseum.org]
Sent: Wednesday, 2 September 2009 9:53 a.m.
To: Stephen Thorpe; 'Kevin Richards'; 'Roderic Page'; 'Paul Kirk'
Cc: 'TAXACOM'
Subject: RE: [Taxacom] Google, Wikipedia, and EOL

> I am currently sitting here
> putting todays Zootaxa references on Wikispecies, e.g.
> http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Arsenurinae#References )

I think this says it all...if, by "putting" you mean typing content on a
keyboard.  We're moving towards a direction where journals like Zootaxa will
produce XML output that can be automatically harvested by the likes of EOL,
following TDWG standards, and put into proper context without a single
keystroke by any human.  Will Wikispecies or Wikipedia ever be able to
populate themselves automatically in that fashion?  Will they be able to
automatically update a piece of metadata for a specimen in my Museum after
it's been updated on our local server?  I can easily imagine a scenario
where EOL can do that; but I'm not so sure the Wiki model will work that
way.

In my mind, efforts like EOL play the role of content
aggregators/organizers, and Wikixxxx plays the role of providing an
interface for content that is best added and edited by human fingers on a
keyboard.

Aloha,
Rich