[Taxacom] Why Taxonomy does NOT matter

[Kim van der Linde]

Amen!

Glad someone is willing to say what we need to hear.

I think the next BIG innovation should be an initiative carried by all 
previous large digitizing projects to bring the whole thing under one 
umbrella accessible to everybody for free. Aka, I want to be able to 
type in the name of a species, and it gives me name, taxonomy, 
phylogeny, references, barcode, museum locations, etc.

Kim

On 4/20/2011 3:17 AM, Andrew Mitchell wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I think the real reason that astronomers can get huge grants and
> taxonomists can't is that taxonomists/systematists are such a
> fractious bunch they just can't help but shoot themselves in the foot
> by protesting vociferously against any emerging large initiatives. A
> case in point is barcoding. The concept has caught the public's
> imagination and could bring megabucks to taxonomy, but instead of
> seeing the possibilities, getting involved and working together to
> integrate and improve this fledgling system many taxonomists would
> rather fire shots from the sidelines.  Have you ever seen a
> documentary on TV where say radioastronomers slam gamma-ray
> astronomers as having no understanding of their subdiscipline? Of
> course not! They would rather work together to build the
> multi-billion dollar SKA that they can all use.
>
> Now that I'm sticking my neck out I may as well add that funding
> models which favour "innovation" over all else are partly to blame.
> This is why we have so many different initiatives digitising taxonomy
> (checklists, species pages&  images, the heritage literature) with
> limited interactivity - each successive proposal must demonstrate
> that it is doing something "innovative", i.e. different from existing
> projects.
>
> OK, my flame guards are up so fire away!
>
> Andrew
>
> Andrew Mitchell Integrative Systematist Entomology
>
> Australian Museum 6 College Street Sydney NSW 2010 Australia t 61 2
> 9320 6346   f 61 2 9320 6042 www.australianmuseum.net.au
>
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