<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">*Sigh*<div><br></div><div><div>So what I'm hearing is people can't figure out how to use Darwin Core without getting confused about pretty much the most basic thing, the taxonomic name. And we're OK with that?!</div><div><br></div><div>In many ways I don't actually care about Darwin Core, all I want is for people to serve canonical names whenever they can (and if they actually want people to use their data without those people pulling their hair out).</div><div><br></div><div>Regards</div><div><br></div><div>Rod</div><div><br><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On 14 Mar 2012, at 17:11, Richard Pyle wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>There has in the past been discussions about a term for this purpose (in fact I believe the proposed term was canonicalScientificName). It's been a few years, and it would take me some time to dig up the details, but my recollection of the conclusion of those discussions was along the lines of the following:<br><br>- When providers had only a "text blob" to represent the scientific name, with or without authorship, with or without rank abbreviations and formatting, etc., and these providers lacked the time, inclination, skills, and/or local data structure to parse these text blobs, then the scientificName term fulfilled their needs.<br><br>- When providers had a text blob for the name, separate from the text blob for the authorship, they could concatenate the two for presentation in scientificName, and also provide the authorship bit in scientificNameAuthorship, and the consumers could easily strip the authorship from scientificName to produce the functional equivalent of a canonical name.<br><br>- When providers did have the time, inclination, skills, and local data structure to parse these text blobs, the elements of a canonical name could be provided via the genus | subgenus | specificEpithet | infraspecificEpithet | taxonRank | verbatimTaxonRank terms, and the consumer could easily assemble these into a single string with canonical form.<br><br>This led to the conclusion that the addition of yet another term in the dwc:Taxon class would have provided very little benefit, at the cost of confusion about what information to provide in which term, and inconsistent use.<br><br>Aloha,<br>Rich<br><br><br>Richard L. Pyle, PhD<br>Database Coordinator for Natural Sciences<br>Associate Zoologist in Ichthyology<br>Dive Safety Officer<br>Department of Natural Sciences, Bishop Museum<br>1525 Bernice St., Honolulu, HI 96817<br>Ph: (808)848-4115, Fax: (808)847-8252<br>email: <a href="mailto:deepreef@bishopmuseum.org">deepreef@bishopmuseum.org</a><br><a href="http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/staff/pylerichard.html">http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/staff/pylerichard.html</a><br><br>Note: This disclaimer formally apologizes for the disclaimer below, over which I have no control.<br><br><br><br><blockquote type="cite">-----Original Message-----<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">From: tdwg-content-bounces@lists.tdwg.org [mailto:tdwg-content-<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">bounces@lists.tdwg.org] On Behalf Of Peter Desmet<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 12:59 PM<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">To: TDWG content mailing list; Roderic D. M. Page; TDWG TAG mailing list<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Subject: Re: [tdwg-content] canonicalScientificName<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Sorry, forgot to include TAG mailing list.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 15:27, Peter Desmet <peter.desmet@umontreal.ca><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">wrote:<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Hi everyone,<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">In a recent tweet [1] Roderic Page reminded me that in Darwin Core, we<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">don't have a ready-to-use scientificName field. The definition for<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">scientificName [2] asks for the full verbose name, including authors.<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">I think this is a good definition (see below), but it also means that<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">in a lot of use cases, names need to be parsed before they can be used<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">or matched. I am currently helping collections publish their data for<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Candensys [3] and as a data producer I am happy we can provide all the<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">information we have in scientificName, but as a data user, I get<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">frustrated every time I see those long verbose botanical names with<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">multiple authors. I am convinced that our data would be more usable if<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">we had an additional canonicalScientificName term.<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Which is why I am now officially requesting it on the Darwin Core code<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">site: http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/issues/detail?id=150 (see<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">below). This has been discussed in detail before [4], but no consensus<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">was reached. I hope we can get our act together this time!<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Regards,<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Peter Desmet<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">--<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">[1] https://twitter.com/#!/rustyrussell22/status/179500954901692417<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">[2] http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/index.htm#scientificName<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">[3] http://www.canadensys.net<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">[4]<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">http://lists.tdwg.org/pipermail/tdwg-content/2010-<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">November/thread.html<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">#1976<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">==New Term Recommendation==<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Submitter: Peter Desmet<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Justification: The scientific name is probably the most used element<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">of an occurrence/taxon, but currently Darwin Core does not provide a<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">single ready-to-use-field for this. A canonicalScientificName with the<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">scientific name as a uninomial, binomial or trinomial could solve this<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">problem.<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">The current terms are not sufficient:<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">- scientificName: verbose, used to record all components of a<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">scientific name (if available), including authorship(s) and<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">rankmarker(s). It is critical to keep this definition, as this term is<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">sometimes the only place to share certain information, e.g.:<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">quadrinomials, intermediate botanical authors, hybrid formulas, etc.<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">The disadvantage of only having this verbose notation is that the user<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">needs to parse the name before he/she can use or match it.<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">- genus, specificEpithet, infraspecificEpithet: concatenated, this<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">terms are identical to the canonicalScientificName for genera, species<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">and infraspecific taxa. For higher taxa or infrageneric taxa, these<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">terms are not sufficient. In addition, there is some ambiguity<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">regarding the genus definition: for synonyms, is it the accepted genus<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">or the genus that is part of the synonym name? See:<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">http://lists.tdwg.org/pipermail/tdwg-content/2010-<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">November/002052.html.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">In the former case, the genus cannot be used to concatenate a<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">canonicalScientificName.<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">The need for this term has been discussed thoroughly already (see:<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">http://lists.tdwg.org/pipermail/tdwg-content/2010-<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">November/thread.html<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">#1976), but no consensus was reached. I'd like to reopen the<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">discussion and I hope that a consensus can be reached quickly, so our<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">data can be used more easily.<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Definition: The scientific name as a uninomial, binomial or trinomial.<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">When forming part of an Identification, this should be the name in<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">lowest level taxonomic rank that can be determined. This term should<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">not contain authorship(s), rankmarker(s) or identification<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">qualifications. If the scientific name cannot be expressed as a uni-,<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">bi- or trinomial (e.g. hybrid formulas), do not use this term (use<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">scientificName instead).<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Comment: Examples: "Carex" (genus), "Vulpes vulpes" (species),<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">"Anaphalis margaritacea occidentalis" (plant variety)<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Refines:<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Has Domain:<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Has Range:<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Replaces:<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">ABCD 2.06:<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">--<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Peter Desmet<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Biodiversity Informatics Manager<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Canadensys - www.canadensys.net<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Université de Montréal Biodiversity Centre<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">4101 rue Sherbrooke est<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Montreal, QC, H1X2B2<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Canada<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Phone: 514-343-6111 #82354<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Fax: 514-343-2288<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Email: peter.desmet@umontreal.ca / peter.desmet.cubc@gmail.com<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Skype: anderhalv<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Public profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/peterdesmet<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">_______________________________________________<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">tdwg-content mailing list<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-content<br></blockquote><br><br>This message is only intended for the addressee named above. Its contents may be privileged or otherwise protected. Any unauthorized use, disclosure or copying of this message or its contents is prohibited. If you have received this message by mistake, please notify us immediately by reply mail or by collect telephone call. Any personal opinions expressed in this message do not necessarily represent the views of the Bishop Museum.<br><br></div></blockquote></div><br><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">---------------------------------------------------------<br>Roderic Page<br>Professor of Taxonomy<br>Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine<br>College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences<br>Graham Kerr Building<br>University of Glasgow<br>Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK<br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:r.page@bio.gla.ac.uk">r.page@bio.gla.ac.uk</a><br>Tel: +44 141 330 4778<br>Fax: +44 141 330 2792</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Skype: rdmpage<br>AIM: <a href="mailto:rodpage1962@aim.com">rodpage1962@aim.com</a><br>Facebook: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1112517192">http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1112517192</a><br>Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/rdmpage">http://twitter.com/rdmpage</a><br>Blog: <a href="http://iphylo.blogspot.com">http://iphylo.blogspot.com</a><br>Home page: <a href="http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/rod.html">http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/rod.html</a></div></span></span>
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