Hi Chuck,

I think it will be a difficult enough task for GBIF/TDWG to standardize and implement the simplest of GUID approaches. To do more risks getting the whole thing bogged down. Can we limit the first round of this work to the simpler, easier-to-do

solution?

I can certainly agree to that (and to Ricardo's similar plea)! My original point, as you repeated in your post, was the issue of understanding what "object" gets a Name-GUID (distinguished from a Specimen-GUID or a Publication-GUID). The discussion about the degree to which GUIDs are shared vs. created anew was a tangent discussion that easily can (and should) be postponed to another time.

So, precisely deciding even the simplest of name "atoms" for which GUIDs will be standardized and implemented is a significant task.

Agreed (of course)...but do you mean that it is a "significant task" in the sense of overwhelming (e.g., that we should defer it for a later time)? Or do you mean "significant" as in "important" (e.g., that we should spend some time discussing it before getting too far ahead)?

Aloha, Rich