[tdwg-content] New terms need resolution: "Individual"

[Peter DeVries]

I made up the outline below to get a better idea of what things each of the
classes "needs" to have defined.

Another way to think of this is what do these need to be linked to.

To some extent this is structured based on how these records will be used.

For instance, you could simply link from an Occurrence to a Indentification,
but you will probably want to display the scientificName without having to
do a separate subquery.

Although some want to include all the identifications in the Occurrence
record without stating which is the preferred identification; I see the need
to view the identification history as a much rarer event
and is therefore best accessed via the record for Individual.

The individual has an identification history, while it would work best if
the Occurrence had one preferred identification.

The use of a taxonConceptID allows all occurrences of the Mountain Lion to
be found even if they have the scientific name "*Felis concolor*", "*Puma
concolor"*, "*Puma concolor cougari*"

An observation of "*Puma concolor cougari*" counts as an observation of "*Puma
concolor" *or of the concept http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p#Species

The names used below are mainly descriptive and should not be interpreted as
proposed DWC names.

Occurrence is a subclass of Event

an instanceOf:Occurrence has the following attributes
( modeled based on what users will want from them)

instanceOf:Event
instanceOf:Location
instanceOf:TimeInterval
instanceOf:Individual
instanceOf:SpeciesConcept (taxonConceptID)
instanceOf:ScientificName  (could also include the full classification)
instanceOf:IdentificationCurrent
instanceOf:IdentificationPrevious ??
instanceOf:Observer  (a Person)
instanceOf:Identifier (a Person)

* Note that Event is the combination of
  a Location
  a TimeInterval


instanceOf:Identification has the following attributes

  instanceOf:Time (date?, year?)
  instanceOf:Individual
  instanceOf:Identifier (a Person)
  instanceOf:ScientificName
  instanceOf:SpeciesConcept (taxonConceptID)
  instanceOf:Occurrence


* Note that IdentificationCurrent, IdentificationPrevious is are subclasses
of Identification

instanceOf:Individual has the following attributes

  instanceOf:Occurrence (multiple)
  instanceOf:Identifier (a Person)
  instanceOf:ScientificName
  instanceOf:SpeciesConcept (taxonConceptID)
  instanceOf:IdentificationCurrent
  instanceOf:IdentificationHistory

Respectfully,

- Pete

On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 8:58 AM, Richard Pyle <deepreef at bishopmuseum.org>wrote:

> Personally, I don't really care what the term is -- as long as it's
> well-defined, appropriate, reasonably unambiguous, and used consistently.
> Of the options John listed, I personally prefer "Biological Entity", but I
> also see Gregor's point that it may be too generic.  I don't like the word
> "Individual", because I would like to see it applied up to at least the
> level of a group of individuals, if not a population (I would be very happy
> if the "entity" covered by the term included subtypes of "Population",
> "Group", "IndividualOrganism", and perhaps even "OrganismPart"; as well as
> whatever terms in-between this spectrum are deemed useful).
>
> I guess "Organism" comes closest, and I don't think the definition needs to
> be so "pure" that it excludes viruses.  But whatever term is selected,
> please try to pick something that introduces as little ambiguity as
> possible.
>
> Aloha,
> Rich
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Gregor Hagedorn [mailto:g.m.hagedorn at gmail.com]
> > Sent: Monday, July 11, 2011 11:07 AM
> > To: Paul Murray
> > Cc: Richard Pyle; TDWG Content Mailing List; biscicol at googlegroups.com
> > Subject: Re: [tdwg-content] New terms need resolution: "Individual"
> >
> > On 11 July 2011 02:51, Paul Murray <pmurray at anbg.gov.au> wrote:
> > > What happened to 'Organism'?
> >
> > Would exclude viruses. -- Gregor
>
>
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> tdwg-content mailing list
> tdwg-content at lists.tdwg.org
> http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-content
>



-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pete DeVries
Department of Entomology
University of Wisconsin - Madison
445 Russell Laboratories
1630 Linden Drive
Madison, WI 53706
Email: pdevries at wisc.edu
TaxonConcept <http://www.taxonconcept.org/>  &
GeoSpecies<http://about.geospecies.org/> Knowledge
Bases
A Semantic Web, Linked Open Data <http://linkeddata.org/>  Project
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