Darwin Core Issues 69 and 80: http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/issues/list
This issue is related to the issue of Evidence (CollectionObject, Representation, Token, Unit) covered in a previous posting. In the Darwin Core there is currently no separate class to explicitly represent the biological entities involved in an Occurrence. This is problematic when trying to be explicit about the attributes of these entities in the semantic world. Various names have been given to this concept, including "Individual", "BiologicalIndividual", "BiologicalEntity", "Organism", and "DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit" in ABCD.
Open Issues: Determine if there is a general consensus on the need for new class for this concept.
The best name for this class.
Create a new Type Vocabulary term referring to this new class.
Decide which properties currently organized under Occurrence should instead be organized under this new class.
As a seed for further discussion, here is a complete proposal. ============== Term Name: BiologicalEntity Identifier: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/BiologicalEntity Namespace: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/ Label: BiologicalEntity Definition: The category of information pertaining to an individual organism or a group of organisms that can reliably be known to represent a single taxon. Comment: For discussion see http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/BiologicalEntity Type of Term: http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Class Refines: Status: recommended Date Issued: 2011-07-04 Date Modified: 2011-07-04 Has Domain: Has Range: Version: BiologicalEntity-2011-07-04 Replaces: Is Replaced By: Class: ABCD 2.06: {DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/CultureCollectionUnit or DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/MycologicalUnit or DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/HerbariumUnit or DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/BotanicalGardenUnit or DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/PlantGeneticResourceUnit or DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/ZoologicalUnit or DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/PalaeontologicalUnit or DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/MultimediaObjects/MultimediaObject}
Term Name: BiologicalEntity Identifier: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/dwctype/BiologicalEntity Namespace: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/dwctype/ Label: BiologicalEntity Definition: A resource describing an instance of the BiologicalEntity class. Comment: For discussion see http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/DwCTypeVocabulary Type of Term: http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Class Refines: Status: recommended Date Issued: 2011-07-04 Date Modified: 2011-07-04 Member Of: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/DwCType Has Domain: Has Range: Version: BiologicalEntity-2011-07-04 Replaces: Is Replaced By: Class: ABCD 2.06: not in ABCD
Term Name: biologicalEntityID Identifier: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/biologicalEntityID Namespace: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/ Label: biologicalEntityID Definition: An identifier for the set of information associated with an BiologicalEntity. May be a global unique identifier or an identifier specific to the data set. Comment: For discussion see http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/BiologicalEntity Type of Term: http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property Refines: http://purl.org/dc/terms/identifier Status: recommended Date Issued: 2011-07-04 Date Modified: 2011-07-04 Has Domain: Has Range: Version: biologicalEntityID-2011-07-04 Replaces: individualID-2009-04-24 Is Replaced By: Class: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/BiologicalEntity ABCD 2.06: DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/
Term Name: biologicalEntityRemarks Identifier: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/biologicalEntityRemarks Namespace: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/ Label: biologicalEntityRemarks Definition: Comments or notes about the BiologicalEntity. Comment: Example: "seen several times in Tilden Park before capture". For discussion see http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/CollectionObject Type of Term: http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property Refines: Status: recommended Date Issued: 2011-07-04 Date Modified: 2009-07-04 Has Domain: Has Range: Version: biologicalEntityRemarks-2011-07-04 Replaces: Is Replaced By: Class: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/BiologicalEntity ABCD 2.06: DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/Notes
Term Name: associatedBiologicalEntities Identifier: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/associatedBiologicalEntities Namespace: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/ Label: associatedBiologicalEntities Definition: A list (concatenated and separated) of identifiers of other BiologicalEntity records and their associations to this BiologicalEntity. Comment: Example: "sibling of MXA-231; sibling of MXA-232". For discussion see http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/BiologicalEntity Type of Term: http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property Refines: Status: recommended Date Issued: 2011-07-04 Date Modified: 2011-07-04 Has Domain: Has Range: Version: associatedBiologicalEntities-2011-07-04 Replaces: associatedOccurrences-2009-04-24 Is Replaced By: Class: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/BiologicalEntity ABCD 2.06: DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/Associations/UnitAssociation/AssociatedUnitSourceInstitutionCode + DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/Associations/UnitAssociation/AssociatedUnitSourceName + DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/Associations/UnitAssociation/AssociatedUnitID
Terms to be organized under biologicalEntity rather than Occurrence: previousIdentifications associatedMedia associatedReferences