[seek-taxon] proposal to modify EML to facilitate taxonomic resolution - first draft

Nico Franz franz at nceas.ucsb.edu
Fri Oct 14 11:35:18 PDT 2005


Hi all:

   We've put together a document (see attachment) that suggests a number 
of modification to EML in order to better support Taxon's resolution 
services in the future.

   The main points are:

1. Concepts should become the fundamental unit for handling observations 
in EML and Morpho.
2. We also need a fuller capability to represent information about 
(just) names (e.g. name authors and year/page of publication).
3. It is not clear that EML/Morpho can handle GUIDs for concepts => we 
will need that.
4. The structure for documenting identifications in EML & Morpho must be 
revised to handle concepts, GUIDs, and a more flexible/powerful 
semantics to express ambiguity in the ID (set relationships, and/or, 
etc.). [two related proposals are illustrated in the document]
5. The convention to add higher-level names is useful to support key 
word search functions, but it is neither necessary nor very helpful from 
a perspective of using concepts.

   There is more detail in the actual document and also some information 
about the taxonomy-carrying structures in EML and Morpho as of now.

   We're welcoming comments and additional points for improvement, 
either now (preferred!!) or in San Diego.

Best,

Nico

*Nico M. Franz, Ph.D.
*Postdoctoral Research Fellow
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
MSB, Room # 3411, University of California
Santa Barbara, CA  93106-6150

Phone: (805) 893-5934; Fax: (805) 893-8062; E-mail: franz at nceas.ucsb.edu
Website: http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/~franz/ 
<http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/%7Efranz/>

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