Well, I also feel pretty good about most of that diagram, but I'm still
struggling with the whole "token" thing. I feel the need to discuss
basisOfRecord=LivingSpecimen which is the most complicated case and is
also related to the previous discussion about dwc:establishmentMeans as
well as my proposal to move it to the proposed Individual class. It is
also related to another issue that I haven't broached here but which is
discussed in my paper - "Occurrences" that aren't directly derived from
an individual. I'm beginning to think that part of what I wrote there
(in the paper) was wrong, but I'm not sure what the alternative is.
That issue will probably come up if I comment about what Cam wrote in
his email. So there may be more to hash out, but I can't handle it
today because I've got too many other things to do. I've been mentally
composing what I hope is a lucid presentation, but it hasn't hit the
keyboard yet.
Steve
I have to say, this has been about the most productive (if volumunous)
list-discussion I've had in...well...maybe ever. It seems we've both been
equally persuasive, and equally willing to concede. How rare that happens
in an internet forum! I'm not sure there's anything left that we disagee
about. If the "diagram1" seems to resonate with everyone as the most
"normalized" ER diagram we'll likely ever need, and if we can somehow
accommodate flexibility in RDF for collapsing attributes to different
classes (but only from the "one" side to the "many" side) -- then we might
have achived the elusive Holy Grail of biodiversity informatics: true
consensus.
Thanks for your great feedback and for challenging my statements. I need
that!
Likewise!
Aloha,
Rich
.
--
Steven J. Baskauf, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer
Vanderbilt University Dept. of Biological Sciences
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