Markus Döring (GBIF) wrote:
What Darwin Core offers right now are 2 ways of expressing the name:
A) the complete string as dwc:scientificName B) the atomised parts: genus, subgenus, specificEpithet, infraspecificEpithet, verbatimTaxonRank (+taxonRank), scientificNameAuthorship
Those 2 options are there to satisfy the different needs we have seen in this thread - the consumers call for a simple input and the need to express complex names in their verbatim form. Is there really anything we are missing?
Yes! A consensus on dwc:taxonRank as to whether Latin or English should be used (see http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/Taxon#taxonRank). I think it is bad to have a controlled vocabulary with two options for every possible value. Why make all software check for two alternatives when a consensus would fix the problem? (Consensus... did I say that word in a tdwg-content email????)
Steve