Oi Vey!
OK, Im not sure whether its best to respond to the email list, or comment on the post, so Ill do both.
First . There technically isnt a ZooBank data model. ZooBank isnt a database, its a service build on the Global Names Usage Bank (GNUB) database. The GNUB database is MUCH broader in scope than ZooBank. ZooBank is only concerned with the specific subset of TNUs that involve nomenclatural acts as governed by the ICZN Code. There are many, many, many more TNUs that are not nomenclatural acts, and/or involve names outside the scope of Zoology.
Second, like many other database projects, weve focused our available time much more on doing, rather than documenting. However, its becoming increasingly clear that we need much more documentation about the GNUB data model, and Ill try to bump that task up the priority list for the coming weeks. For now, Ive uploaded four images to the ZooBank server showing the table relationships:
http://zoobank.org/images/TaxonNameUsageCluster.jpg http://zoobank.org/images/ReferenceCluster.jpg http://zoobank.org/images/AgentCluster.jpg http://zoobank.org/images/CoreTables.jpg
The first of these will be the most helpful to this discussion; but the others are of potential interest. Also, this is the data model as it now stands. Following a very productive meeting last April, there is a draft new data model that is mostly the same, but adds more capability to capture specific details about name usages. But the general data model remains the same.
Now, on to Rods post:
1) Nice choice of the example species!
2) The graph looks mostly right, but its hard in some cases to figure out what labels go with what arrows. For example, the protonym in the upper-left corner of the image seems to apply to the vertical solid line connecting the top-left oval (which should be labeled "Belonoperca Fowler & Bean, 1930 sensu Eschmeyer 2004 "), and the other "protonym" applies to the recursive link for the protonym itself. Similarly, the parentusageuuid off to the left applies to the vertical arrow from Belonoperca F&B to Serranidae sensu F&B. It took me a while to figure out what was going on with the labeling of arrows.
3) Another issue with the graph is that the dotted lines from the three "sensu" TNUs to the respective original description publications are not links that actually exist in the data model, so it seems inappropriate to represent them in the graph.
4) While it's fair to say that the graph may look "to look a tad complicated" -- is it any more complicated than it needs to be? After you get rid of the superfluous dashed lines from the "sensu" usages to the original publications, what specific pieces of information represented do you feel are not necessary to reflect taxonomic information? Taxonomy is, after all, a tad complicated in how it has worked over the past 250 years. I think part of the reason why many of the myriad existing databases don't quite fulfill the overall needs is that they aren't quite complicated enough. In other words, too many databases take too many shortcuts in representing information, thereby reducing the overall utility.
I have a major report due on Friday, so I can't respond in more detail now; but I will be glad to address any points of confusion or elaborate more completely on how the GNUB data model is structured (and why it is structured the way it is) next week.
Aloha, Rich
Richard L. Pyle, PhD Database Coordinator for Natural Sciences Associate Zoologist in Ichthyology Dive Safety Officer Department of Natural Sciences, Bishop Museum 1525 Bernice St., Honolulu, HI 96817 Ph: (808)848-4115, Fax: (808)847-8252 email: deepreef@bishopmuseum.org http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/staff/pylerichard.html
Note: This disclaimer formally apologizes for the disclaimer below, over which I have no control.
From: Roderic Page [mailto:r.page@bio.gla.ac.uk] Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 1:04 AM To: Richard Pyle Cc: 'Steve Baskauf'; tdwg-rdf@googlegroups.com; Tony.Rees@csiro.au; pmurray@anbg.gov.au; Simon.Pigot@csiro.au; J.Kennedy@napier.ac.uk; eotuama@gbif.org; tdwg-tag@lists.tdwg.org; 'David Patterson' Subject: Re: [tdwg-rdf: 105] Re: [tdwg-tag] Any TCS users with experiences to report?
To try and get my head around the various models of taxon names, usages, and concepts being discussed I've created a graph of my understanding of the data model underlying ZooBank http://iphylo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/zoobank-data-model.html . This may or may not reflect the actual situation, I'll leave that to Rich to comment on.
Regards
Rod
--------------------------------------------------------- Roderic Page Professor of Taxonomy Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences Graham Kerr Building University of Glasgow Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
Email: r.page@bio.gla.ac.uk Tel: +44 141 330 4778 Fax: +44 141 330 2792 Skype: rdmpage Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rdmpage Twitter: http://twitter.com/rdmpage Blog: http://iphylo.blogspot.com Home page: http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/rod.html Citations: http://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=4Z5WABAAAAAJ