Thanks, Matt -- this is really interesting!

The more I think about it, the more I think this is the sort of system that would work well for our field. A centralized issuer (which could issue blocks of thousands or millions of numbers at a time), with no inherent categoriziation of what "kind" of object the number is assigned to (taxon name, taxon concept, specimen, population, dataset, collection, defined locality, publication instance, agents, etc.). Then we manage the relationships/links among the objects via controlled vocabulary/ontology and metadata (as we discussed at some length back in November).

I'm not sure how wise it would be to create a new syntax standard, rather than go with one of the ones we've discussed. But if (for example) using LSID, I personally think it would be preferable to establish a highly generic form, such as:

urn:lsid:gbif.org:BioGUID:12345

-or-

urn:lsid:tdwg.org:BioGUID:12345

Or, if GBIF/TDWG are not generic enough, then something like:

urn:lsid:biologicalregistry.org:BioGUID:12345

Where the "biologicalregistry.org" is perhaps initially established by TDWG or GBIF, but can be perpetuated by whomever, if circumstances suggested it.

Aloha, Rich

-----Original Message----- From: Taxonomic Databases Working Group GUID Project [mailto:TDWG-GUID@LISTSERV.NHM.KU.EDU]On Behalf Of Matt Jones Sent: Friday, January 27, 2006 1:56 PM To: TDWG-GUID@LISTSERV.NHM.KU.EDU Subject: identifiers for geologic samples

The earlier discussion on samples was valuable, especially regarding the subsample/part-of issues when samples are taken apart and the relationships need to be maintained. I saw a talk in the last two weeks by Kerstin Lehnert about the use of identifiers for geologic samples. They seem to have many of the same issues that we do for biological samples. They have created a system called the "International Geo Sample Number", which is a centralized sample registration service. Interestingly, they invented their own syntax rather than using a standard like LSID or DOI. I though it might be interesting background for those of you going to the meeting next week:

http://www.geosamples.org/

and here's a fossil plant sample as displayed in their registry:

http://www.geosamples.org/applications/sesarSearch/view_sample.jsp

Matt

Matt Jones                                   Ph: 907-789-0496
jones@nceas.ucsb.edu                    SIP #: 1-747-626-7082
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
UC Santa Barbara     http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinformatics