"described by anyone" is not the same as "described by anyone in any way convenient to the describer", so I find this quotation somewhat disingenuous. More precisely, I wonder what TDWG standard or proposed standard you find enables fiefdoms \in ways that are impossible under some other solution to the problem the standard addresses/. 

Bob Morris

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 10:47 AM, Peter DeVries <pete.devries@gmail.com> wrote:
This paragraph below seems to encapsulate the differences in thinking between the linkeddata community and
some of the TDWG people on how to best share biodiversity data.

"The notion of a fabric of resources that are individually described, queried, and resolved may seem unmanageable or like science fiction. For organizations that are used to large, manual, centralized efforts to standardize on everything, it may seem anarchic to allow resources to grow organically and be described by anyone. The same people would probably not believe the Web possible in the first place if there were not already ample proof of its success."

REST for Java developers, Part 4: The future is RESTful
From http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-04-2009/jw-04-rest-series-4.html?page=4

I think that some people may have lost sight of the goal of making data available to improve the understanding of our
natural world and hopefully better manage our natural resources.

It does not seem that creating a distributed network of fiefdoms will help us achieve this goal.

- Pete

I was led to this article by @janzemanek on twitter.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Pete DeVries
Department of Entomology
University of Wisconsin - Madison
445 Russell Laboratories
1630 Linden Drive
Madison, WI 53706
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--
Robert A. Morris
Professor of Computer Science
UMASS-Boston
ram@cs.umb.edu
http://bdei.cs.umb.edu/
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phone (+1)617 287 6466