TDWG-SDD XML proposals of Kevin Thiele

[Steve at]

Thanks for the gentle reminder of where we are ultimately headed.

I guess I'm expressing some disappointment relating to the "bicycle vs.
space shuttle" problem discussed earlier.  The BioLink team have put
together quite a nice little bike and are now zoning around town having a
great time.  The SDD discussion seems to still be lying in a grassy field
(or on the railroad tracks?) gazing at the stars and dreaming of space
ships.

We're not even close to putting together a single data model that works with
even a single application, forget about sharing multiple data models across
multiple applications. Yes, that will come and I understand the power of it,
but let's get a system that can represent DELTA/Intkey and LucID data now,
the data we currently hold and the applications we currently use.  By all
means we should keep dreaming and planning and exploring.  And when new
applications appear and want to share or extend our data then we share and
extend it.  It's the classic problem of deciding when to put down the pencil
and paper and pick up the hammer and saw.  We've been at this for a year
now, it's time to get dirty.

Thanks, Steve Shattuck

P.S. - I'll give the DTD generator a try as soon as the current BioLink XML
import finishes.