Greetings TDWGers:

First, my apologies for the cross-posting (a sentence many of you will read three or four times in the next few minutes...)

Attached to this email message is a PDF document representing a draft version of the "Guiding Principles and Policies" for the future development of ZooBank, the proposed electronic registry of Zoological names and nomenclatural acts, as governed by the ICZN Code. A copy of this document has also been temporarily placed at this URL: http://www2.bishopmuseum.org/iczn/docs/ZooBank-GPP.pdf A more permanent home for the evolving document will be posted as soon as it is established.

Please take the time to review this document and provide comments, criticisms and questions. This message has been distributed to the ZooBank email list, ICZN email list, TAXACOM, and TDWG email lists. Please feel free to forward this message and the document to any individuals or discussion forums with an interest in the future development of ZooBank. As stated in the document itself, from this point forward the goal is to develop ZooBank in a completely transparent way, with as much community input as possible.

All feedback via whatever mechanism is, of course, most welcomed! However, to help consolidate the discussions, as much of the feedback as possible should be posted through the ZooBank email list. Information for how to subscribe to that list and access its archives is available here: http://list.afriherp.org/mailman/listinfo/zoobank-list

Obviously, feedback on any aspect of this document, or relating to ZooBank in general, will be gratefully received. In particular, however, it would be most helpful to receive comments on what minimal data attributes (and in what format) should be required in order for a record to be considered "verified", and what standards of quality control should be applied to such records.

There will be a gathering of a number of ICZN Commissioners at the IUBS Meeting in Washington, D.C., in May (http://www7.nationalacademies.org/IUBS/), so it would be especially useful to have feedback before then.

Aloha,

Richard L. Pyle, PhD Commissioner, International Commission for Zoological Nomenclature

Database Coordinator for Natural Sciences and Associate Zoologist in Ichthyology Department of Natural Sciences, Bishop Museum 1525 Bernice St., Honolulu, HI 96817 Ph: (808)848-4115, Fax: (808)847-8252 email: deepreef@bishopmuseum.org http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/staff/pylerichard.html