identifiers for geologic samples

[Richard Pyle]

Thanks, Matt -- this is really interesting!

The more I think about it, the more I think this is the sort of system that
would work well for our field.  A centralized issuer (which could issue
blocks of thousands or millions of numbers at a time), with no inherent
categoriziation of what "kind" of object the number is assigned to (taxon
name, taxon concept, specimen, population, dataset, collection, defined
locality, publication instance, agents, etc.).  Then we manage the
relationships/links among the objects via controlled vocabulary/ontology and
metadata (as we discussed at some length back in November).

I'm not sure how wise it would be to create a new syntax standard, rather
than go with one of the ones we've discussed.  But if (for example) using
LSID, I personally think it would be preferable to establish a highly
generic form, such as:

urn:lsid:gbif.org:BioGUID:12345

-or-

urn:lsid:tdwg.org:BioGUID:12345

Or, if GBIF/TDWG are not generic enough, then something like:

urn:lsid:biologicalregistry.org:BioGUID:12345

Where the "biologicalregistry.org" is perhaps initially established by TDWG
or GBIF, but can be perpetuated by whomever, if circumstances suggested it.

Aloha,
Rich



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Taxonomic Databases Working Group GUID Project
> [mailto:TDWG-GUID at LISTSERV.NHM.KU.EDU]On Behalf Of Matt Jones
> Sent: Friday, January 27, 2006 1:56 PM
> To: TDWG-GUID at LISTSERV.NHM.KU.EDU
> Subject: identifiers for geologic samples
>
>
> The earlier discussion on samples was valuable, especially regarding the
> subsample/part-of issues when samples are taken apart and the
> relationships need to be maintained.  I saw a talk in the last two weeks
> by Kerstin Lehnert about the use of identifiers for geologic samples.
> They seem to have many of the same issues that we do for biological
> samples.  They have created a system called the "International Geo
> Sample Number", which is a centralized sample registration service.
> Interestingly, they invented their own syntax rather than using a
> standard like LSID or DOI.  I though it might be interesting background
> for those of you going to the meeting next week:
>
> http://www.geosamples.org/
>
> and here's a fossil plant sample as displayed in their registry:
>
> http://www.geosamples.org/applications/sesarSearch/view_sample.jsp
>
> Matt
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Matt Jones                                   Ph: 907-789-0496
> jones at nceas.ucsb.edu                    SIP #: 1-747-626-7082
> National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
> UC Santa Barbara     http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinformatics
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~