Hi all,
I had a look at the Darwin Core terms (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/index.htm) and I have some questions and remarks.
1. The "Replaces"-links for terms in the "Complete historical record" (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/history/index.htm) always link to themselves. See for example: HigherGeography (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/history/index.htm#HigherGeography-2009-01-21). The "Replaces"-link links to same 2009-01-21 instead of 2007-04-17 (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/history/index.htm#HigherGeography-2007-04-17). And this 2007-04-17 also links to 2007-04-17 instead of the older 2003-06-17. A link for "Is Replaced By" instead of text would also be useful.
2. As a result, I had some difficulties mapping the terms from DwC 1.4 (http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/DarwinCore/DarwinCoreDraftStandard) with the new ones. Update: Until I found the Darwin Core Versions document (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/history/versions/index.htm).
3. Are the terms StartDayOfYear, EndDayOfYear, StartTimeOfDay, EndTimeOfDay, YearSampled, MonthOfYear, DayOfMonth necessary if you can provide this information in EarliestDateCollected, LatestDateCollected? Or is this to provide e.g. the time at which something was collected if you don't know the date (I don't know if you can express this in EarliestDateCollected)? If so, YearSampled can always be expressed in EarliestDateCollected/LatestDateCollected.
4. Is it possible to provide a different example for SampleRemarks and SamplingEventRemarks for a clearer difference between the two? Now both have "found dead on road".
5. Why is ValidDistributionFlag removed? This looked like an interesting field for all our botanical garden specimens. We now have to express this in SamplingProtocol, which will need a controlled vocabulary for sorting these out.
6. Is Behavior an attribute of a SamplingEvent or Sample?
7. I'm happy with addition of the term "PreviousIdentifications". Is it possible to provide the previous identificators and dates there as well?
8. Can you add multiple "ResourceRelationship", "SampleAttribute", "EventAttribute" to one sample? If yes, how does this work in a flat schema like DwC?
9. The name "SamplingAttributeID" (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/index.htm#SamplingAttributeID) should probably be changed to "SampleAttributeID".
10. What terms are mandatory?
Best regards,
Peter