I have been pondering taxon name matching type services lately…

 

I wonder if the OGC WPS (Web Processing Service) would make a good platform for integrating the various name matching algorithms that are being worked on lately.

 

I was imagining something like a web interface where you can go to and view a list of the available algorithms and select different algorithms in different orders to get the best set of match results your own list of name strings/data.

If everyone set up their algorithms as a WPS then this interface would call each WPS in the appropriate order until then end of the configured workflow path.

 

UI something like (in diagram):

 

 

Where the bottom part is configurable by the user.  Each box being a representation of a WPS service for doing the match.

 

Any thoughts?

Perhaps something that could be discussed at TDWG?

 

One issue would be how to define/specify the list of names to match against – then when you pass the processing of a match routine how would it access the names list to match??  Perhaps it could all be based on one server and people could submit algorithm/WPS services to it?

 

Hmmmm, will keep dreaming …

 

Kevin