Steve,
I'm wasn't involved in those final discussions of dwc:basisOfRecord and the type vocabulary, but I don't see a difficulty. The Dublin Core type vocabulary includes the following:
Collection Dataset Event Image InteractiveResource MovingImage PhysicalObject Service Software Sound StillImage Text
The Darwin Core types extend that with the three additional types, and with Occurrence being further subtyped with those different kinds of Occurrences.
Location Taxon Occurrence PreservedSpecimen FossilSpecimen LivingSpecimen HumanObservation MachineObservation NomenclaturalChecklist
Data publishers/providers should categorize their Occurrence data as one of those subtypes (or perhaps another subtype that wasn't included in that list). It's up to the consumer to decide which kind of Occurrence subtypes are appropriate for a particular use.
Could you give examples of the inconsistent use of values in basisOfRecord ?
Also note, John W. is traveling at the moment. Markus might be able to provide additional thoughts.
-Stan
On 10/25/10 10:34 PM, "Steve Baskauf" steve.baskauf@vanderbilt.edu wrote:
OK, I know that this sounds like a stupid question, but I really want somebody who was involved in the development and maintenance of the current DwC standard to tell me how the term dwc:basisOfRecord is supposed to be used (not what it IS - I've seen the definition at http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/index.htm#basisOfRecord)? I would like for the answer of this question to be separated from the issue of what the Darwin Core type vocabulary (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/type-vocabulary/index.htm) is for.
I re-read the lengthy thread starting with http://lists.tdwg.org/pipermail/tdwg-content/2009-October/000301.html which talked a lot about basisOfRecord and its relationship to other ways of typing things. I don't want to re-plough that ground again, but I couldn't find the post that stated what the final decision was. I remember that there was a decision to NOT create the recordClass term which was the subject of much discussion.
I guess my confusion at this point is with the inclusion of both "Occurrence" and "PreservedSpecimen" in the same list. Let's say that I have a flat database where I include metadata about the Occurrence (such as dwc:recordedBy) and the specimen (such as dwc:preparations) in the same line. What is the basisOfRecord for that line? I would guess that the "basis of the record" was the specimen. But the line in the record also represents an Occurrence. It seems like there is a lack of clarity as to whether basisOfRecord is supposed to indicate the type of the record (which would be an Occurrence record) or whether it's supposed to indicate the kind of evidence on which the record is based (which would be PreservedSpecimen). There have been various times where I've seen a database record that includes basisOfRecord and it seems to be inconsistently applied.
I can see how the Darwin Core type vocabulary could be useful - it pretty much lays out useful values that one could give for rdfs:type. But basisOfRecord as a term is confusing me.
Steve