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Dusty,<br>
Nice thought-provoking examples. I think that it is safe to say that
not everyone is going to want to use this broadly-defined concept of
Individual. But it will be there for people who want (or in my case
need) to use it. Those who want to use in in complex ways will have to
bear the burden of figuring out how. A few comments inline:<br>
<br>
Dusty wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:AANLkTintUv2YDxFPLFhVCZZDkc5Nj_SWFZZj7YBktH-P@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div class="gmail_quote">...<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="im"><br>
> Composite specimens: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://arctos.database.museum/guid/UAM:Herb:12718"
target="_blank">http://arctos.database.museum/guid/UAM:Herb:12718</a><br>
<br>
</div>
This one could be represented as "Bupleurum" for the Individual instance<br>
representing the sheet, but then I would be inclined to establish two<br>
"child" individuals (semantically related to the "parent" sheet), one
each<br>
identified to the two different taxa.<br>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
So I picked an easy example. Here's a slightly harder one: <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://arctos.database.museum/guid/MVZ:Egg:2355">http://arctos.database.museum/guid/MVZ:Egg:2355</a>.<br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
How about something like this? Assign an Individual ID to the bird
that build the nest which would be an Occurrence (documentary evidence
of the bird that built it). Assign an Individual ID to the
brood-parasitic bird that laid the egg in the nest which would also be
an Occurrence. Use the DwC Resource Relationship terms
(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/index.htm#ResourceRelationship">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/index.htm#ResourceRelationship</a>) to define
the parasitism relationship between the two Occurrences. This would be
a good opportunity for John to demonstrate how one does this - I've
never been clear exactly how it is supposed to work.<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:AANLkTintUv2YDxFPLFhVCZZDkc5Nj_SWFZZj7YBktH-P@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div></div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">...<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> Things that aren't taxonomy at all:<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://arctos.database.museum/guid/UAM:ES:3405" target="_blank">http://arctos.database.museum/guid/UAM:ES:3405</a><br>
<br>
</div>
Outside the scope of DwC?<br>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
Maybe so, but there it is: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://data.gbif.org/occurrences/242032297/">http://data.gbif.org/occurrences/242032297/</a>.
Excluding that would, I think, force you to exclude things like <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://arctos.database.museum/guid/UAM:ES:3359">http://arctos.database.museum/guid/UAM:ES:3359</a>
as well - it's all from the same administrative unit. I don't have or
want any control over what Curators enter - any scope-limiting filter
will have to happen elsewhere.<br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
People are always going to misapply terms. I think sending records of
rocks and minerals to GBIF as occurrences is an error (out of scope).
So I don't feel any need to explain how to handle something like that.
<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:AANLkTintUv2YDxFPLFhVCZZDkc5Nj_SWFZZj7YBktH-P@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div><br>
The point is simply that these are real data. We won't change them to
some approximation of themselves or stuff them into a remarks field
somewhere. They'll get more complicated before we're done. Anything
that's to be useful to us must acknowledge the realities of collections
data.<br>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
True enough. Thanks for the challenge!<br>
<br>
Steve<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Steven J. Baskauf, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer
Vanderbilt University Dept. of Biological Sciences
postal mail address:
VU Station B 351634
Nashville, TN 37235-1634, U.S.A.
delivery address:
2125 Stevenson Center
1161 21st Ave., S.
Nashville, TN 37235
office: 2128 Stevenson Center
phone: (615) 343-4582, fax: (615) 343-6707
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu">http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu</a>
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