[Taxacom] Occurrence data...

[Bob Mesibov]

Like Ken, I see it's time to sign off, but if you're following this thread you may be wondering if there's a gold-standard 'solution' to the problem of finding biodiversity data on the Web, or am I just being unproductively grumpy?

I think there is a solution, but it doesn't involve having to choose - every single time you need info - between lovingly crafted, bottom-up resources like the Hymenoptera Online Database, and Gigantic Biodiversity Databases riddled with errors and problems like GBIF. The solution is to openly link the data, which is what Pete De Vries has argued for on Taxacom and elsewhere, and what Rod Page keeps endlessly tinkering to do, and reporting on his iPhylo blog.

Putting your data tables into Darwin Core-understandable format so they can be easily incorporated into GBIF is just another recompilation. Why recompile? Why not link to the primary source?

Ken Walker wrote: "Contact and resend updated datasets to all 100 previous direct data receivers or update the aggregated data source where the user knows that the most up to date source can be downloaded from a single location.", but on the Web, those don't have to be the only 2 choices.
-- 
Dr Robert Mesibov
Honorary Research Associate
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and
School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
Ph: (03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195
Webpage: http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/?articleID=570