[tdwg-ncd] Terminology plus problems

Ruud Altenburg ruud at eti.uva.nl
Wed Jul 18 10:19:22 CEST 2007


Hallo all,

my last-minute proposal to the terminology would be to remove  
'unknown' from any list of terms because this term is not very useful  
as a keyword. Did we really settle on majorDiscipline and broadTaxa?  
I think the latter term may not really be self explanatory.

Probably you will be tired of this but let me explain my problems one  
last time.

I started this GBIF project in mid April. The project definition was  
written was on the assumption that most of the code we used for a  
database based on NCD v0.5 (NLBIF metadatabase) could be reused. It's  
now three months later(!) and there still is no finalized schema I  
can build on. Yes, the RDF version is 'almost complete' but the  
relationships between keywords and collections have not yet been  
determined yet. Also the new terminology contains two properties not  
yet implemented in the schema.

I had a proper look at the draft v0.8 schema yesterday and noticed  
that the keyword section has changed a lot since v0.5. This  
effectively means I will have to completely change the database  
tables and the PHP pages to add/update/delete records. The import  
from NoDIT databases was written to support NCD v0.5, so that goes  
out of the window as well.

Constructing a database plus entry tool is only part of ETI's project  
definition. We also need to build an import tool and a webservice.  
After the meeting I thought it would be a matter of days rather than  
a few weeks before a definite NCD schema would be ready. However, it  
now is exactly one month on and I still have had no sign when a  
version will be 'locked' so I can start.

Today we will meet at ETI to discuss this project, because we will  
need to report to GBIF about these problems. It's now very clear that  
we will not be able to meet the September deadline. Also quite a bit  
of the GBIF funding has gone into time that has been wasted because  
things keep changing over time. For now I think it's best stop this  
project until I have received a definite schema.

Regards,

Ruud



On 17 Jul, 2007, at 21:48, Butler, Carol wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
>
> As I didn't hear disagreement with the elements <majorDiscipline>,  
> <broadTaxa> and the July 11 revisions to <collectionType>, I think  
> we've essentially come to a decision on those elements.
>
> If we still have decisions to make on the acceptable terms to be  
> used in the elements, let's aim to get that done by July 23.  Neil  
> has forwarded a list of Institution terms he found, and while there  
> is some overlap there are terms that we should include.  I will  
> clip out the section of the spreadsheet for that element and send  
> you a revision of acceptable terms for <institutionType> only.
>
> Cheers
> Carol
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ruud Altenburg [mailto:ruud at eti.uva.nl]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 9:52 AM
> To: Markus Döring
> Cc: Neil Thomson; Constance Rinaldo; Butler, Carol;  
> Guenter.Waibel at rlg.org; Barbara Mathe; Doug Holland; Natural  
> Collections Descriptions mailing list; Wouter Addink
> Subject: Re: Terminology version 2
>
> Hallo all,
>
>> we havent finally decided yet I believe. Or have we?
>
> As the latest schema involved changes to the properties themselves,
> preferably I would like to see these determined ASAP. The terms can
> be added later, that's no problem.
>
>> if you use the ISO codes that is kind of language independant I
>> would say. And wouldnt it be enough to use ISO 639-1 only? do we
>> really need dialects, british vs american english etc?
>
> For languages possibly that would be the case, although probably not
> everybody would associate e.g. 'deu' with German ;) But even if we
> stick to 'just' 185 languages, it is impossible to translate the
> terminology Excel document to all those languages...
>
> And if I may add another question: how should I interpret the
> TaxonCoverageStrength, CommonNameCoverageStrength, etc properties
> exactly? In the schema as displayed by Oxygen they seem completely
> synonymous with TaxonCoverage, CommonNameCoverage, etc.
>
> Regards,
>
> Ruud
>
>
>
>




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