[Taxacom] i4Life Call for Pilot Projects

[Stephen Thorpe]

Not sour at all, just trying to "keep it real", and not pretend that things are either better than they are or worse than they are ...
 
Even 100% correct name lists are just that, i.e. name lists, which are not the most useful of things in the world, but name lists with a significant proportion of problems/errors are surely near worthless, particularly if hardly anyone has the background knowledge to even notice the problems/errors, because then it is far from certain that the lists will be improved over time...
 
Stephen


________________________________
From: Geoffrey Read <gread at actrix.gen.nz>
To: Stephen Thorpe <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz> 
Cc: TAXACOM <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> 
Sent: Wednesday, 25 July 2012 10:58 AM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] i4Life Call for Pilot Projects

Stephen,

You seem rather sour about it all, and a too literal view of 'volunteer' I
think.  If I'm asked by the GSD I volunteer for, I would of my own free
will decide whether payment, if offered, is worth the drudge of doing
unsatisfying work before agreeing to do it.  These days I am less inclined
to work on rubbish, paid or not, I don't care, and I have a choice. I'm
hoping this initiative is workable and sound - we will see.

Geoff


On Wed, July 25, 2012 10:26 am, Stephen Thorpe wrote:
>>I can't see many taxonomists volunteering <
>  
> yes, but they are not being asked to "volunteer" ... there is money in it
> for them ...
>  
> I expect it is a case of the primary purpose of the exercise being to pump
> money through the system, and if they manage to clear up a few names along
> the way, then even better! :)
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Geoff Read <gread at actrix.gen.nz>
> To: Thierry Bourgoin <bourgoin at mnhn.fr>
> Cc: TAXACOM <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
> Sent: Wednesday, 25 July 2012 10:17 AM
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] i4Life Call for Pilot Projects
>
> Dear Thierry,
>
> A taxonomist's ability to interpret harvested names usefully without
> context is very limited.  Unless the exact context in the form of a
> clickable direct link to the original usage (not an aggregator site) on
> the web is provided, I can't see many taxonomists volunteering to take on
> examining name lists. It's just too time-consuming and frustrating (I've
> done it - unwillingly). Does a good context link come too? It is
> essential.
>
> Geoff Read
>
> On Tue, July 24, 2012 6:58 pm, Thierry Bourgoin wrote:
>> Hi Chris,
>>
>> Just read again the call as it seems you have misunderstood it.
>>
>> The purpose of the call is to complete the COL with several millions of
>> names already collected and sorted during i4Life first step, and to go
>> now, through the GSDs, to get these names sorted to valid species names
>> by
>> their taxonomic community, (re-)placed within a global classification,
>> and
>> only when this done, re-sent to CoL that will harvest them for its
>> completion.