[tcs-lc] Taxonomic Product or Taxonomic Data

[Beach, James H]

Roger et al. --
 
I think it is an open question at the moment as to what actual users
(taxonomists, monographers, nomenclaturalists, etc.) will want to do
with the schema.  SEEK-Taxon has undertaken just one day of usability
interviews with four active systematists and many of the application
functions we might imagine on top of the schema were not on their list
of bottlenecks or priorities.  I will waffle a bit and admit that this
does not mean that a wide array of data documentation tasks may not
become popular or necessary in the future for good science, but I think
the results of usability interviews of practitioners should be
considered very carefully before costly software design, implementation
and maintenance is decided.  
 
I believe that the schema will be more or less useful to different
producers and consumers as applications reflect actual research
priorities and time constraints.  As one well-known software engineer
once put it, programmers are inherently lazy and they spend much
creative time finding ways to do things easier and making less work for
themselves--so that they can do more in the time available.  I think
that users of schema in whichever applications they have, will follow
the same path.  They will not go out of their way (nor would any of us)
to make more work for themselves than is necessary to meet their
objectives and those of the scientific community they are part of.
 
Definitely number 1,  number 2 will be done in pieces as needed and
required by different application domains within the field.
 
Jim B. 
_____________________________
James H. Beach
Biodiversity Research Center
University of Kansas
1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
T 785 864-4645, F 785 864-5335




 



  _____  

	From: Kennedy, Jessie [mailto:tcs-lc-admin at ecoinformatics.org]
On Behalf Of Kennedy, Jessie
	Sent: 07 March, 2005 4:18 AM
	To: tcs-lc at ecoinformatics.org
	Subject: RE: [tcs-lc] Taxonomic Product or Taxonomic Data
	
	
	Hi Roger
	 
	I guess we would eventually want to do 2 i.e. 1 and 2 but in the
first place doing 1 will aid doing 2 - or resolving any data like that
described in 2.
	 
	Jessie

  _____  

	From: tcs-lc-admin at ecoinformatics.org on behalf of Roger Hyam
	Sent: Sat 05/03/2005 21:21
	To: tcs-lc at ecoinformatics.org
	Subject: [tcs-lc] Taxonomic Product or Taxonomic Data
	
	

	Hi Everyone,
	
	This may seem like quite an high level topic and you will have
to excuse
	me if this ground has already been covered but I am trying to
nail down
	the scope of the TCS/LC schema a little more in my own mind and
need to
	gather opinions on the high level goals.
	
	Are we passing the product of taxonomic research or raw
taxonomic data?
	
	Either:
	
	1) We imagine taxonomists doing their work and then publishing
the
	results using the TCS/LC schema. Basically publishing taxon
concepts,
	when to use them, what to call them and how they relate, what
can and
	can't be said about data tagged with different names and
concepts etc.
	We probably have about this level of coverage in the schema at
the moment.
	
	2) We imagine taxonomists publishing everything they do using
the
	schema. Every specimen examined and what it was identified as.
All the
	'agents' they know about and the different teams they have
worked in and
	how their names have been abbreviated and where they have
collected etc
	etc. The nitty gritty of stuff that would be very useful for
some one
	producing a monographic revision to have to hand but that an
ecologist
	or biomedical prospector wouldn't care about at all.
	
	I think that some of the discussions that we are having at the
moment
	would be resolved if we had a definite policy on which of these
two
	approaches we were following.
	
	I'd be grateful for peoples thoughts on this. I consider 2 to
include 1
	so there is no option of saying we want to do both!
	
	Best regards,
	
	Roger
	
	
	
	
	
	
	--
	
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	  Roger Hyam
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