From: "P. F. Stevens" peter.stevens@MOBOT.ORG To: TDWG-SDD@USOBI.ORG

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producing comparative data is difficult. Nevertheless, shouldn't this be one of the main objectives of taxonomy?

Absolutely. And surely this is what we are trying to facilitate here, and what guides the discussion.

My comments were in response to Kevin Thiele's opinion:

I think part of the basic problem is [trying] to force too much structure and while this is a great promise it's been an impediment in practice.

'Structure' apparently means a character list, i.e. the basis for producing comparative data. Although Kevin says elsewhere that both structured and unstructured data should be allowed (and I agree - they are allowed in DELTA), the above statement seems to suggest that the 'impediment' should be avoided by encouraging the use of non-comparative data.

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Mike Dallwitz

CSIRO Entomology, GPO Box 1700, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia Phone: +61 2 6246 4075 Fax: +61 2 6246 4000 Email: md@ento.csiro.au Internet: biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/