[tdwg-content] Comments on Darwin Core Issue 205 (the proposed Organism term)

[Eamonn O Tuama [GBIF]]

I think the case for opaque identifiers can be argued both ways. See, e.g.
discussion here [1]. Further to Hilmar's point about offering flexibility
around defining labels, I also like them because, especially for
new-comers, they help distinguish the concept from the label we apply to
the concept and do not give preeminence to the English label.
Éamonn



[1] http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontology-summit/2014-02/msg00028.html

> On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 5:06 PM, Richard Pyle <deepreef at bishopmuseum.org>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> I still believe that a human-friendly name is very helpful.  The barrier
>> is
>> not the standard or how it's named.  The barrier is how humans interpret
>> and
>> implement the standard.
>
>
> I agree.
>
>
>>   Giving the class an opaque identifier (I would, of course, vote in
>> favor
>> of a UUID!) would probably create a barrier to progress through opacity
>> that is greater than the barrier of confusion through mis-interpretation
>> of
>> an imperfect human-friendly name like "Organism".
>>
>
> I think this is a false conclusion. The Gene Ontology has been widely
> adopted, as have been other OBO ontologies, despite (or perhaps because?)
> opaque identifiers.
>
> I say parenthetically "perhaps because" because having opaque identifiers
> actually allows you to evolve and change labels so that they make the most
> sense, rather than being stuck with choices made early on because now all
> kinds of data uses those identifiers.
>
>   -hilmar
> _______________________________________________
> tdwg-content mailing list
> tdwg-content at lists.tdwg.org
> http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-content
>