[Taxacom] Visualizing Biodiversity

[Charles Hussey]

Hi Tony,

We used a product from Touchgraph (http://www.touchgraph.com) to build
an expandable classification. This was part of a UK Lottery-funded
project (2001-2004) called Nature Navigator, with pages on the NHM
website. Unfortunately the web presence was switched off a couple of
years back so all I can show for it is a screenshot (not sure whether
attachments will work on taxacom. If not, try this link:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources/temporary-transfer/Species_Dictionary_Dat
abase/Nature_Navigator_screenshot.jpg).

This was a java app, running real-time off a SQL-Server database. The
nodes could be expanded, collapsed (the spider diagram fans out
dynamically and can be zoomed). Technically quite fun, but I am not sure
how popular/useful it was.

Regards,

Charles Hussey FLS,

Science Data Co-ordinator,
Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity,
Natural History Museum,
Cromwell Road,
London SW7 5BD
United Kingdom

Tel. +44 (0)207 942 5213
Fax. +44 (0)207 942 5501
e-mail c.hussey at nhm.ac.uk
Skype: c_hussey



-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of
Tony.Rees at csiro.au
Sent: 31 August 2011 05:09
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: [Taxacom] Visualizing Biodiversity

Dear Taxacomers,

In my efforts to produce a listing of all genera I end up with, among
other things, summary data on higher levels of my taxonomic hierarchy
plus the number of child taxa each contains (current example by phylum:
http://www.marine.csiro.au/mirrorsearch/ir_search.list_phylum). I
realise that this tabular approach is pretty much as unexciting as it
gets so was wondering about an improved visual manner to present this
type of information, preferably in the form  of a navigable hierarchy as
per the present hyperlinks.

One example I have come across which seems really neat is Kris Urie's
EOL Tree Viewer (aka "VOLE" - Viewer of life on EOL), for example
starting point see http://kurie.github.com/EOL-tree-viewer/#COL, however
I was wondering whether taxacomers have more suggestions or personal
favourites worth looking at. Of course I would also have to work out how
to load in my data, but that's a detail maybe.

All suggestions / examples welcome (and may even be used on my site if I
can figure out how to implement one or more of them). (Also I have a
feeling that Rod Page may have some experience in this area). Of course
it would also be nice if someone could take this on as a pet project for
free, however I would never dream of asking such a thing (for comparison
/ light relief see http://www.27bslash6.com/p2p.html).

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

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