I have lost track of where we were on the public comment period on this proposal. I don't think that there was ever a declared end to to comment period, so I'm going to go ahead and make another comment.

On 2015-03-27 I objected to this proposal on the basis that it was not clear how the terms would be used with literal and IRI values. Although the ratification of the DwC RDF Guide has not yet been formally announced, since it has been approved by the Executive Committee, I withdraw my objections to the proposed addition of the environment terms. Under the system outlined in the RDF guide, a term such as dwc:biome would be used with a string literal value, while the analogous term dwciri:biome would be used with an IRI value.

Steve

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [tdwg-content] Darwin Core Proposal - environment terms Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 09:37:25 -0500 From: Steve Baskauf steve.baskauf@vanderbilt.edu Organization: Vanderbilt University Dept. of Biological Sciences To: tuco@berkeley.edu CC: TDWG Content Mailing List tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org References: CAHwKGGdu=qaC0SBdGqF95VvBCxwmk2zrgWAmYmux9vrL2ut71g@mail.gmail.com 55155B13.3080602@vanderbilt.edu

Actually, let me be more blunt. I object to the adoption of these terms as currently proposed because the recommendation in the comment is not clear. I think that these three term adoption issues are blocked by the adoption of the RDF guide. If the RDF guide is accepted by the Executive, then there is default mechanism for addressing my issue: there will be dwc:biome, which would have a literal value and dwciri:biome, which would have a value that is an IRI. If the RDF guide is not accepted by the executive, then there needs to be some other solution, such as the Audubon Core mechanism: dwc:biome and dwc:biomeLiteral.

I don't know what the holdup is on the RDF guide. It had jumped through every hoop required for adoption and was submitted for approval by the Executive on 2014-12-29. There is no reason why it should take three months for a decision on this.

Steve

Steve Baskauf wrote:

For clarification, each example shows one string value that is free text and another that is an ENVO IRI. Does this mean that if a user wants to indicate the ENVO class for flooded grassland biome that they can chose to provide either the text label for the class or the IRI? Or is the example showing free text intended to show how a user might provide a value if they aren't following the recommended best practice (i.e. using some system other than ENVO that doesn't have IRIs)? It seems to me counterproductive to provide two choices. I would rather see the recommendation be to provide an IRI unless one isn't available. Otherwise, consumers will be stuck with having to try to interpret what free text means.

Alternatively, provide two terms: one intended for use with literal names (i.e. free text) and one intended for use with IRIs. That precedent has been set in Audubon Core (e.g. ac:provider and ac:providerLiteral). In DwC we have the dwc: and dwciri: solution in the RDF guide (which appears once again to be stuck in Executive Committee limbo). In the Audubon Core case, this isn't really an RDF issue since AC doesn't assume any particular representation and I think you could have a spreadsheet with an IRI value for ac:provider. I suppose it would be kosher to have dwciri:biome expressed as an IRI in string form in a spreadsheet for people who don't care about RDF. I don't think this has actually been discussed.

Steve

John Wieczorek wrote:

...

Term Name: biome Identifier: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/biome Namespace: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/ Label: Biome Definition: An environmental system to which resident ecological communities have evolved adaptations. Comment: Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary such as defined by the biome class of the Environment Ontology (ENVO). Examples: "flooded grassland biome", "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_01000195". Type of Term: http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property Refines: Status: proposed Date Issued: 2013-09-26 Date Modified: 2015-03-26 Has Domain: Has Range: Refines: Version: biome-2015-03-26 Replaces: IsReplaceBy: Class: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Event ABCD 2.0.6: not in ABCD

Term Name: environmentalFeature Identifier: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/environmentalFeature Namespace: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/ Label: Environmental Feature Definition: A material entity which determines an environmental system. Comment: Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary such as defined by the environmental feature class of the Environment Ontology (ENVO). Examples: "meadow", "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00000108". Type of Term: http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property Refines: Status: proposed Date Issued: 2013-09-26 Date Modified: 2015-03-26 Has Domain: Has Range: Refines: Version: environmentalFeature-2015-03-26 Replaces: IsReplaceBy: Class: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Event ABCD 2.0.6: not in ABCD

Term Name: environmentalMaterial Identifier: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/environmentalMaterial Namespace: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/ Label: Environmental Material Definition: A portion of environmental material is a fiat object which forms the medium or part of the medium of an environmental system. Comment: Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary such as defined by the environmental feature class of the Environment Ontology (ENVO). Examples: "scum", "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00003930". Type of Term: http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property Refines: Status: proposed Date Issued: 2013-09-26 Date Modified: 2015-03-26 Has Domain: Has Range: Refines: Version: environmentalMaterial-2015-03-26 Replaces: IsReplaceBy: Class: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Event ABCD 2.0.6: not in ABCD

-- Steven J. Baskauf, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer Vanderbilt University Dept. of Biological Sciences

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