I think that the effort to organize information about species has been moving so slowly in part because of it's focus on names. Our goal is to organize information about species, names are just the handle that we use to tag a species.
The efforts would go much more quickly if we create identifiers for species concepts and then point the various names to that identifier.
I did a check via Google Scholar for papers published this year that mention the *Puma concolor*, and *Felis concolor.* * * Both of these names for the same species are still being used.
It would make sense to mint global URI for that species concept and then tag all papers, images, observations to that species concept.
As these documents are being processed, more and more information will be tied to that identifier.
Identifiers for "good" species could be created quickly. New observations could start to be tagged with that identifier along with whatever name the recorder would like to use. e.g. Aedes/Ochlerotatus
These concepts could be mapped to the GNI data in the following way
http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p *hasNameID* http://globalnames.org/name_strings/3165624 http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p *hasNameID* http://globalnames.org/name_strings/505310 http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p *hasNameID* http://globalnames.org/name_strings/10330292 http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p *hasNameID* http://globalnames.org/name_strings/6689244 http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p *hasNameID* http://globalnames.org/name_strings/3169574 http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p *hasNameID* http://globalnames.org/name_strings/10568463 http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p *hasNameID* http://globalnames.org/name_strings/12104361 http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p *hasNameID* http://globalnames.org/name_strings/1758834 http://www.taxonconcept.org/spcs/v6n7p *hasNameID* http://globalnames.org/name_strings/11818218
I have not had much success getting this idea accepted in a number of these communities.
So I have a proposal. Let my group start making species concept identifiers. If this concept is adopted, I have succeeded in proving my point. If this concept fails, then I am wrong. Either way, we should have an answer by the end of the decade.
Respectfully,
- Pete
P.S. This is not about changing the system of binomial nomenclature, it is about tying data together so we can start to address the world's problems in a efficient manner. Binomial nomenclature stays. ;-)