[Taxacom] globalnames?

[Paul Kirk]

Right on Jim ...

We need to ensure that these increasingly digital 'non taxonomic lists
of taxon names' are hard linked to appropriate digital taxon concepts
and all the other stuff non taxonomist need to do their jobs. And then
when things go wrong (the infamous 404) we can point to the lack of
funding to support taxonomy and we will all get lost of money to prevent
the 404s ... ;-)

I know ... in my dreams

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Jim Croft
Sent: 26 September 2009 20:11
To: dipteryx at freeler.nl
Cc: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] globalnames?

On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 5:22 PM,  <dipteryx at freeler.nl> wrote:
 > This rather speaks of a database mentality?

and this is a good thing, yes?  ;)

 > "In texts aimed
> at non taxonomists (field guides, red data lists, quarantine lists 
> etc)" these "potentially confusing homonyms", if any exist at all, 
> will be so few as not being worth listing (again, that is the whole 
> purpose of nomenclature).

These lists are probably the sorts of taxonomic products that unsettle
me the most.  They are lists of names purporting to be lists of
unambiguous and inviolate species entities/concepts but in most cases
there is no way to connect one with the other, other than to assume they
are following the prevailing taxonomic wisdom. Which of course might
change next week.

In our case these lists are part of legislation and thus inherit power
far greater than the science and semantics behind them.

It is all a bit of a worry...

On the other hand, if the names in question were linked online to a
documented taxonomy circumscribing the intended concept/entity, which
was in turn connected to a populated disambiguator, all would be sweet
and peace and harmony would rule the earth.  :)

jim

--
_________________
Jim Croft ~ jim.croft at gmail.com ~ +61-2-62509499 ~
http://www.google.com/profiles/jim.croft
... in pursuit of the meaning of leaf ...
... 'All is leaf' ('Alles ist Blatt') - Goethe

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