[Taxacom] Why Taxonomy does NOT matter

[Paul van Rijckevorsel]

From: "Robin Leech" <releech at telus.net>
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 3:13 PM

> If you have a problem, and you give it to 10 engineers to solve, they
> will forego their differences, work together and give you the answer.

***
Not so sure about this. If that were true, why are there so many fields
where there are no agreed-upon standards: there are plenty of web
browsers, and every new one is a surprise in what it supports and does
not support. Same with formats for visual media, etc. Governments are
stepping in to force standardization, to prevent enormous wastage and
confusion, as the EU does in the case of portable telephones. Yet
engineers not conforming to standards have no lack of funding
(or of customers).

Biologists have long since put together Codes of nomenclature that operate
worldwide, although the subject is a lot more finicky than building an
web browser.

(Which is not to say there are no fractious biologists, but this may just be
 a personal character flaw, or an attempt to live up to the reputation that
 biologists are supposed to be fractious)

Paul