[Taxacom] Data quality in aggregated datasets

[David Campbell]

It's the fault of the big software companies, not the database, but email
hot links don't always work so well-one must have an appropriate software
configuration.

"Submit a comment" does sound like a better button than "error
report"-there are indeed many possibilities.


On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 5:52 AM, Geoff Read <gread at actrix.gen.nz> wrote:

>
> "my experience in sending corrections to WoRMS is quite positive, although
> it would be more convenient to have a direct link from the page"
>
> I think WoRMS does that. There's a contact email hot link to the database
> team bottom right on every page of the WoRMS plain interface.  They'll
> forward your email to the right person.  If you use one of the GSD
> interfaces to WoRMS such as mine for Polychaeta, the template is for the
> lead taxa editor name to be in the same bottom right location, either just
> as the name or clickable.  And "report an error" is rather negative - you
> might also want to contribute information, ask a question or request a
> clarification as to why something is so.
>
> Geoff
>
> On Tue, April 23, 2013 5:33 am, David Campbell wrote:
> > All too often, there is an additional step, namely "interested third
> party
> > hunts around trying to find how to contact the data provider".  Given
> that
> > error checking is not being funded, this means that errors are largely
> > noticed when an interested user is trying to make use of the data set for
> > some other project.  I'm not a database programmer, but I would think it
> > would be relatively straightforward to have a "report an error with this
> > record" button that automatically supplies the provider with the
> > information they need to identify which record is problematic.  As is,
> > the user often becomes disinterested in bothering if the provider seems
> > uninterested in correcting.  Also, in far too many cases, the data
> quality
> > is so spectacularly bad as to discourage the prospective users.
> > I would note that my experience in sending corrections to WoRMS is quite
> > positive, although it would be more convenient to have a direct link from
> > the page rather than looking up the contact email.  On the other hand,
> > when
> > I found that a BOLD record had a completely wrong photo, I was told that
> > the information in GenBank was not the information they needed to
> identify
> > the record.
> > On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 6:04 PM, Robert Mesibov
> > <mesibov at southcom.com.au>wrote:
>
>
>


-- 
Dr. David Campbell
Assistant Professor, Geology
Department of Natural Sciences
Gardner-Webb University
Boiling Springs NC 28017