For the record, I am in support of this proposal (which may be redundant given my advocacy for it in the past). I do not have a strong opinion about the name of the class because I think that the definition is more important than the name and it looks to me like the definition says what it should (or at least what I think it should). The definition allows for a small group of organisms if they can reliably be known to represent a single taxon. I think that Individual is probably not a good name due to confusion with the technical use of that term elsewhere.
I don't understand why Rich says that the creation of this class eliminates the need for a class for "evidence". Perhaps he will elaborate when he has better email access.
Steve
On 7/4/2011 4:48 PM, John Wieczorek wrote:
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 _______________________________________________ tdwg-content mailing list tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-content
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