I am very much in support of the creation of this class. In the discussion that took place over the last year, it seems that there is a consensus that an Occurrence is something different than the evidence that supports it. The class proposed here would clarify the distinction between those two things. This conceptual clarity will be important in moving forward efforts to model the biodiversity domain.

I think that the definitions given below are adequate and I guess the name CollectionObject would be OK with the examples given in the term definition. I agree with Gregor that the organism itself could serve as evidence for its own existence, but I think that the organism would need to be more than just geolocated. If it were to actually serve as evidence, some agency must be able to assert that the organism is available for examination (i.e. it should be a LivingSpecimen, not just located once in the wild). I don't think that CollectionObject necessarily implies that it must be a physical object, but since some people might think that it does, I would recommend that the term definition make it clear that the evidence could be electronic as well as physical. I think that for many people, the term "voucher" carries the connotation of a physical specimen so I think CollectionObject would probably mislead fewer people.

So the bottom line is that I would recommend that the example list in the definition be expanded from "(specimen, sample, image, sound, drawing, etc.)" to "(preserved or living specimen, sample, image, sound, drawing, etc. including digital representations)" or something like that.

Steve

On 7/4/2011 4:44 PM, John Wieczorek wrote:

None of this was entered as an issue in the Darwin Core Issue tracker. Rather, it arose from the discussion on DigitalStillImage (Issue 68). The Darwin Core simplifies the representation of concepts related to the occurrence of life in nature. Specifically, there is a Darwin Core Occurrence class, but no separate class to explicitly represent the physical evidence for the Occurrence. This is problematic when trying to be explicit about the attributes of physical or digital objects in the semantic world. Various names have been given to this concept, including "PhysicalObject", "Evidence", "PhysicalEvidence", "Sample", "Specimen", "CollectionObject" in the ASC model, "DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/..." in ABCD, "Representation" (Baskauf 2010) and "Token" as a preferred alternative to "Representation" in tdwg-content (http://lists.tdwg.org/pipermail/tdwg-content/2010-October/001742.html).

Open Issues: Determine if there is a general consensus on the need for new class for this concept.

Decide the best name for this class.

Create a new Type Vocabulary term referring to this new class.

Change the Darwin Core Type Vocabulary terms that refine Occurrence (FossilSpecimen, PreservedSpecimen, LivingSpecimen) to refine the 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: CollectionObject Identifier: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/CollectionObject Namespace: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/ Label: CollectionObject Definition: The category of information pertaining to persistent evidence of a biological entity (specimen, sample, image, sound, drawing, etc.). Comment: For discussion see http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/CollectionObject 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: CollectionObject-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: CollectionObject Identifier: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/dwctype/CollectionObject Namespace: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/dwctype/ Label: CollectionObject Definition: A resource describing an instance of the CollectionObject 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: CollectionObject-2011-07-04 Replaces: Is Replaced By: Class: ABCD 2.06: not in ABCD

Term Name: collectionObjectID Identifier: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/collectionObjectID Namespace: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/ Label: collectionObjectID Definition: An identifier for the CollectionObject. In the absence of a persistent global unique identifier, construct one from a combination of identifiers in the record that will most closely make the collectionObjectID globally unique. Comment: For a specimen in the absence of a bona fide global unique identifier, for example, use the form: "urn:catalog:[institutionCode]:[collectionCode]:[catalogNumber]. Examples: "urn:lsid:nhm.ku.edu:Herps:32", "urn:catalog:FMNH:Mammal:145732". 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: http://purl.org/dc/terms/identifier Status: recommended Date Issued: 2011-07-04 Date Modified: 2011-07-04 Has Domain: Has Range: Version: collectionObjectID-2011-07-04 Replaces: Is Replaced By: Class: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/CollectionObject ABCD 2.06: DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/UnitGUID

Term Name: collectionObjectRemarks Identifier: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/collectionObjectRemarks Namespace: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/ Label: collectionObjectRemarks Definition: Comments or notes about the Collection Object. Comment: Example: "custody transferred in 1995 from National Park Service". 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: collectionObjectRemarks-2011-07-04 Replaces: SampleRemarks-2009-01-18 Is Replaced By: Class: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/CollectionObject ABCD 2.06: DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/Notes

Note that with the addition of CollectionObject, the InstitutionCode, CollectionCode, CatalogNumber triplet would no longer apply to an Occurrence. This is a big, non-backward compatible change.

Terms to be organized under CollectionObject rather than Occurrence: catalogNumber preparations disposition otherCatalogNumbers

Terms that might have to be added to under CollectionObject to retain capabilities currently achieved under Occurrence: associatedCollectionObjectMedia associatedCollectionObjectReferences associatedCollectionObjects associateSequences _______________________________________________ tdwg-content mailing list tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-content

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