[tdwg-tag] TDWG ontology revisited ... a newcomer's perspective [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Fri May 15 10:50:13 CEST 2009

a very brief reply - a project with a web based RDF Vocabulary editor is
Neologism which sits on top of a drupal 5 instance - take a look at:
http://neologism.deri.ie/
with a demo at:
http://neologism.deri.ie/demo/
They have a fairly decent visualisation system and it's all web based.
Just in case you're looking.
Cheers,
Kehan

On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 1:37 AM, Lee Belbin <leebel at netspace.net.au> wrote:

> Hi Lynette, Greg, Gregor et al.,
>
> I’ve only just caught up with this thread, but feel obliged to post (I
> sound like Rich).
>
> A few months ago (and not for the first time), I came to exactly the same
> conclusion as you Lynette. There is I fear, a growing gap between the more
> technical members of TDWG and those who are joining TDWG from applications
> areas such as biology, taxonomy etc. As time goes on, this gap seems more
> evident, and nowhere is this more apparent than with the 'TDWG ontology'.
>
> The TDWG ontology is probably the most important priority we currently
> have. Your comments about the use of the ontology to help newcomers
> understand the domain is spot on. I'd also say that the newcomers are in
> many cases, domain experts who have a lot to contribute to the ontology, but
> really can't in its present form. The ontology is also mandatory if we want
> to efficiently cross link all the various TDWG activities/groups. Recent
> comments about Darwin Core and the TDWG ontology is a prime example!
>
> The ontology is priority-1 for TDWG, BUT (it is a big but), we need
> effective tools (preferably A web based tool) that would EASILY enable
> anyone (not just Protégé experts) to view (in various forms that were
> suitable for the purpose), manage, build, annotate, document, import and
> export bits or all of the ontology/vocabularies is helpful formats.
>
> If TDWG has these issues with developing and using an effective ontology,
> plenty of others must have also! Surely?
>
> I discussed this with Donald and he agreed and said that Greg and Garry
> were thinking about this as well (as Greg has suggested). I also discussed
> the ontology issue with Gail Kampmeier as she has a graduate student looking
> for a biodiversity informatics project - and this is a beauty. Markus Döring
> also said at the Fremantle meeting that he was keen to lead work on the
> ontology. I also discussed this same issue a month or so ago with Roger
> (post TONTO :), but I fear that Roger is in the 'techie' category and didn't
> fully grasp what I was trying to get across about SIMPLE etc. That's
> probably my fault. Your email Lynette seems to have got the point across
> better than I've done.
>
> There is a meeting about the ontology scheduled on the Tuesday evening at
> eBiosphere where Donald, Eamonn, Karen Stocks, hopefully Roger and a few
> others plan to discuss the issues. Please let me know the key issues that
> COULD be addressed at that meeting. Thankfully there seems to be some
> critical mass building about quickly moving forward on the ontology. I'd
> like to see what I can do to ensure that it happens.
>
> There is obviously nothing stopping work on aspects of the ontology such as
> Roger and Peter have suggested. If I can do anything about setting up a Wiki
> or similar easy tasks, please let me know.
>
> Lee
>
> Lee Belbin
> TDWG Secretariat
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tdwg-tag-bounces at lists.tdwg.org [mailto:
> tdwg-tag-bounces at lists.tdwg.org] On Behalf Of Greg Whitbread
> Sent: Thursday, 14 May 2009 7:09 PM
> To: Lynette.Woodburn at csiro.au
> Cc: tdwg-tag at lists.tdwg.org
> Subject: Re: [tdwg-tag] TDWG ontology revisited ... a newcomer's
> perspective [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
>
> Lynette,
>
> Yes. I agree.  To this end we (Garry is the one with the Twiki skills) are
> experimenting with ways of doing this using the TDWG wiki, one term per page
> described using dcmi /terms/ namepaces
> http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/ , but alternatives do need to
> be considered before we make a start. I have just had another look at the
> MRTG Schema at http://www.keytonature.eu/wiki/MRTG_Schema_v0.7 for
> instance. A solution supporting export to a formal representation would be
> ideal though if it came to the choice, accessibility should take priority.
> Somewhere between Roger's lsid vocabularies and the MRTG schema page there
> must be a way to achieve this.
>
> Is Semantic-mediawiki an option?
>
> greg
>
> On Thu, 2009-05-14 at 13:30, Lynette.Woodburn at csiro.au wrote:
> > Back to basics …
> >
> >
> >
> > Anyone new to biodiversity informatics (in general) and TDWG (in
> > particular) might be expected, as a first step, to seek a broad
> > understanding of the scope of the knowledge domain which is of
> > interest to the community they’ve just joined.  Next, they’re likely
> > to want to gain an understanding of each of the main concepts and to
> > discover how those concepts relate to one other.  Delving yet deeper,
> > curiosity will lead them to seek details about features used by the
> > community to characterise each of those main concepts.  So, gradually,
> > it is anticipated that newcomers will gain an understanding of the
> > meaning associated by their fellow community members with elements
> > (concepts, features, relationships) within the knowledge domain.
> > (Those elements are, after all, the chief subjects of discourse
> > amongst community members.)
> >
> >
> >
> > This fantastic voyage of discovery, these first steps into Aladdin’s
> > Cave, ought to be made easy for any newcomer.  Instead, TDWG presents
> > a dizzying array of perspectives on disparate subsets of elements
> > within the knowledge domain, often with only cryptic, tenuous links
> > binding them together.  ‘Horses-for-courses’-drivers clearly exist for
> > these subsets, but where is the common community understanding of
> > where each element fits into the broader, shared knowledge domain
> > which is TDWG’s scope?
> >
> >
> >
> > I fully support any initiative which more effectively leads newcomers
> > (and not-so-newcomers) to that place: that place where I would hope to
> > find, in plain expressions devoid of techno-speak, a description of
> > each real world element (concept, feature, relationship), together
> > with a simple representation (a label?) by which the TDWG community
> > prefers each to be referred; that place which evolves, but endures,
> > independently of technological fashions and particular
> > implementations; that place I can visit to paint a picture in my
> > mind’s eye of TDWG’s own Aladdin’s Cave.
> >
> >
> >
> > Lynette Woodburn
> >
> > Atlas of Living Australia
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ______________________________________________________________________
> > _______________________________________________
> > tdwg-tag mailing list
> > tdwg-tag at lists.tdwg.org
> > http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-tag
> --
>
>
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http://vocabularies.gbif.org
skype: kehanharman
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Bill Cosby <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/bill_cosby.html>  -
"Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope."
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