[tdwg-content] most GUIDs/URIs for names/taxon stuff not ready for prime time

Tony.Rees at csiro.au Tony.Rees at csiro.au
Fri Jan 7 21:11:45 CET 2011


Dear all,

>From where I sit (very much on the sideline of this debate, waiting to see what happens), the main trouble I see is that (1) anyone and his dog can mint yet another unique identifier for the same taxon name, leading to uncontrolled proliferation and never ending ID reconciliation issues, and (2) there are always some names not on any particular external "identifier assigning" list which therefore lack an identifier (however have a scientific name) just when you want one. No problem, just mint your own, however that feeds back into (1) again...

Just curious - ITIS TSNs would have to be one of the longest established and promoted systems of "non-name" identifiers for taxon names - have they been successful in anyone's view, or if not, why not...

Any comments appreciated.

Regards - Tony


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