[SEEK-Taxon] Design Issues of Taxonomic Concept Browser &

[xianhual@email.unc.edu]

A pure ontonogy-based TCBE has some advantages, including,

1. It can work with any kind of taxonommic data model that can output 
data in OWL.
2. It saves time and effort for implementattion, since there have been 
already free source codes.
3. It is in the trend of ontology web.

At the same time, such a TCBE needs to take some potential 
disadvantages under consideration. 

1. Most of TCBE users are supporsed to be Toxonomists, Ecologists or 
Biologists. Ontology terminology (such as 'subClass','type') might be 
difficult for these non-IT users to understand. 

2. Putting everything into graph might make the screen so congested 
that a user could get lost in such a jungle of 'rectangles','circles' 
and 'lines'. 

As an example, let's consider 'TaxonomicConcept' as a Class with two 
properties, 'Name' & 'Reference'. In an ontology 
browser, 'TaxonomicConcept' will be an empty rectangle (or other shape 
depends on specific implementation) with two arrows pointing to 'Name' 
& 'Reference' respectively. To get a basic idea about a 'Taxonomic 
Concept', a user need to go through several branches and end nodes. 
Would it be more direct and understandable to gather basic information 
(name,author & year) of a 'TaxonomicConcept' and put them in one box?

Xianhua

Quoting sgauch at ittc.ku.edu:

> I think that this TCBE should perhaps tie in to work being done to
> produce
> the general ontology browser (Growl?) rather than reproducing effort.
>  If
> we are able to output an OWL representation of the Taxonomic concepts
> (one
> our our use cases) it may be that an enhancement/extension/subset of
> GROWL
> would meet our needs too.
> 
> Susan.
> 
> > Hi, Everyone,
> >
> > I revised the first doc about TCBE and added more details. The
> > significant issues are,
> >
> > 1. DATA: How could TCBE work with different taxonomic data models?
> > 2. VIEW: What will the TCBE GUI look like?
> >
> > This revised document tried to answer above questions. Before
> > implementation, I'd like to discuss with you on any aspect of TCBE
> and
> > make sure we are on the same track.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Xianhua
> 
> 
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