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

[Greg Whitbread]

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
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
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-- 
 

australian centre for plant bIodiversity research<------------------+
national            greg whitBread             voice: +61 2 62509 482
botanic Integrated Botanical Information System  fax: +61 2 62509 599
gardens                      S........ I.T. happens.. ghw at anbg.gov.au
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