[Tdwg-obs] FW: What is an observation?

Donald Hobern dhobern at gbif.org
Thu Oct 20 06:55:02 CEST 2005


I fully agree with Jerry.  It may be helpful for us to start not by thinking
of observations by themselves, but rather to think of 'surveys' or some
other similar higher class of objects.  A 'survey' is a definition of the
protocols surrounding a set of 'observations' and is the correct place to
record all of the information about the methods involved, wherever that
falls along Jerry's hypothetical continuum.  Each 'observation' is then
associated with a 'survey'.  The most casual kind of 'observations' may be
associated with a null 'survey' indicating that little or nothing can be
inferred about the communities, populations and interactions of this and
other taxa in the given area on the basis of this isolated point event.

It is likely too that 'surveys' need the option of being defined recursively
to reflect the fact that a particular 'survey' may itself fit into a
higher-level organisation of coordinated activity.  For example a transect
may be part of an annual series for a given locality, within a national
scheme for monitoring a randomly selected set of transects.

The main point is that the interest in 'observations' is not exactly the
same as for specimens.  At an early stage in the development of GBIF, we
tended to treat observations as little more than voucherless specimens.
This ignores what is generally the most significant aspect of such data, the
organisation of those point events into a framework of observations in which
every observation (including every zero count) gives context to the others.
We need to focus on capturing this, rather than treating 'observation' data
simply as a set of modifier attributes to a standard Darwin Core taxon
occurrence record.  

Donald
 
---------------------------------------------------------------
Donald Hobern (dhobern at gbif.org)
Programme Officer for Data Access and Database Interoperability 
Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat 
Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Tel: +45-35321483   Mobile: +45-28751483   Fax: +45-35321480
---------------------------------------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: Tdwg-obs-bounces at lists.tdwg.org
[mailto:Tdwg-obs-bounces at lists.tdwg.org] On Behalf Of Jerry Cooper
Sent: 19 October 2005 23:45
To: Tdwg-obs at lists.tdwg.org
Subject: Re: [Tdwg-obs] What is an observation?

I support Hannu's view. 
 
I still see a bit of confusion created by the overlap between 'a natural
history oriented observations' and 'survey/monitoring observations'. 
The former is generally a serendipitous event and is well described within
ABCD. The latter generally places a much greater emphasis on recording the
relationships between organisms and with the surrounding environment and the
methodology used to capture these data. 
Does the community see a difference between these two - or a continuum
between them? 
Is this group primarily concerned with the former, or the latter, or both?
If it is the former then I think I'm in the wrong group, and maybe we need a
seprate group to consider survey/monitoring events.
If it is the latter, or a continuum, then I restate what I said in St
Petersburgh. For survey/monitoring data it is the methodology metdata that
takes precedence and that should act as a container for 1 to many
observations of organisms and environmental variables. That is the inverse
of say, Darwin Core, where an observation on a single organism takes
precedence. Hence the difficulty in recording 'absence' data within a Darwin
Core-like schema.
 
Jerry
 
 
Jerry Cooper PhD
Research Leader: Biodiversity Informatics
Landcare Research
PO Box 40, Lincoln 8152
New Zealand
+64 3 325 6701 ext 3734
CooperJ at LandcareResearch.CO.NZ

>>> Hannu Saarenmaa <hsaarenmaa at gbif.org> 20/10/2005 3:40 a.m. >>>

How about this:   An observation captures data about the occurrence of 
an organism in space and time and in relation to habitat and other 
organisms.  Documenting the precision, accuracy, certainty, and methods 
of the measurements that have been made during an observation is 
essential for determining the fitness for use of the data that has been 
captured. An observation is an event that can be linked to other events.

Indeed, I would like to emphasise the need of documenting what is called 
"quality".

Hannu

Steve Kelling wrote:

>Hello,
>
>I had several people respond to my query about  what kinds of things we 
>should discuss in this list. Overwhelmingly, the interest seemed focused on

>defining some of the key terms that we are bantering about. To that end I'd

>like to initiate the first discussion on this list by asking, what is an 
>observation?
>  What follows is some information that I gleaned from the Internet, 
>discussions that I have had with others, and with the ENBI reports. I'd 
>appreciate your comments, in our goal to create a good definintion of 
>observation for our purposes.--Steve
>
>Princeton University's Wordnet 
>(<http://wordnet.princeton.edu/>http://wordnet.princeton.edu/) defines an 
>observation as the act of making and then recording a measurement. 
>Basically, something is watched, and notes are taken about it. In the study

>of biology and astronomy careful observations made by trained observations 
>and amateurs alike, is the foundation of information gathered for these 
>disciplines.
>
>
>With regard to biodiversity informatics, particularly as to how 
>observations relate to the existing infrastructure, the above definition is

>too general, because it encompasses all facets of biology. Consequently, we

>need to begin to qualify the definition of observation. First, we restrict 
>our definition to only those observations made of organisms in the 
>environment. Second, the location at which the observation was made is an 
>integral component of the observation. Third, an observation is exclusive 
>of museum voucher specimens. Finally, information collected during an 
>observation includes additional attributes such as: protocol, measure of 
>abundance, extent of occurrence, demographic, ecological associates, and 
>environmental conditions.
>
>  To discuss and ultimately added to the definition:
>
>Advantages of observational data.
>Disadvantages of observational data
>Observational data providers (amateurs/professionals)
>Detectability and data quality
>Location specificity
>Integration of observational data
>Definition of a collecting event and its significance
>others?
>
>
>Steve Kelling
>Cornell Lab of Ornithology
>607-254-2478 (work)
>607-342-1029 (cell)
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Tdwg-obs mailing list
>Tdwg-obs at lists.tdwg.org
>http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-obs_lists.tdwg.org
>
>  
>

-- 
Hannu Saarenmaa
Deputy Director for Informatics
Global Biodiversity Information Facility - GBIF Secretariat
Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen
Tel +45-35321479     Fax +45-35321480     GSM +45-28751479
hsaarenmaa at gbif.org  http://www.gbif.org/


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