[tdwg-content] Request for vote on proposal to add DigitalStillImage as a dwc:type

[Steve Baskauf]

The recent discussion on the tdwg-content email list has clarified my 
understanding about the community consensus on the nature of an 
Occurrence.  In my previous view that each Occurrence had a single token 
that provided evidence for the Occurrence, I felt that it was necessary 
to have a term in the Darwin Core type vocabulary for each type of token 
that could serve as evidence for an Occurrence and which could serve as 
a controlled value for dwc:basisOfRecord.  On the basis of this 
understanding, I proposed adding DigitalStillImage as a dwc:type.

However, given the apparent consensus that the documenting token is a 
separate entity from the Occurrence and that there may be multiple 
tokens associated with a single Occurrence, I no longer see any need for 
adding DigitalStillImage to serve as a controlled value for 
basisOfRecord, since still images that are tokens will be a separate 
resource from Occurrence and can simply be rdf:type'd as 
dcterms:StillImage .  (In fact, I no longer believe that basisOfRecord 
itself serves any useful purpose - I'm still waiting for someone to show 
me a case where it is necessary for it to exist as a term.) 

I'm not actually withdrawing my request, because if there is actually a 
purpose for basisOfRecord, then DigitalStillImage should be a value for 
it.  People who want to use basisOfRecord will need it.  But given my 
current understanding of an Occurrence, I would vote against my own 
proposal (if I were voting, which I'm not).  Anyway, unless there is a 
desire for further discussion of basisOfRecord, I feel like the 
discussion on tdwg-content of adding DigitalStillImage to the DwC type 
vocabularly has progressed far enough for the TAG to move on to the 
voting stage.

Steve

-- 
Steven J. Baskauf, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer
Vanderbilt University Dept. of Biological Sciences

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