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

[Steven J. Baskauf]

For the record, I am in support of this proposal (which may be redundant 
given my advocacy for it in the past).  I do not have a strong opinion 
about the name of the class because I think that the definition is more 
important than the name and it looks to me like the definition says what 
it should (or at least what I think it should).  The definition allows 
for a small group of organisms if they can reliably be known to 
represent a single taxon.  I think that Individual is probably not a 
good name due to confusion with the technical use of that term elsewhere.

I don't understand why Rich says that the creation of this class 
eliminates the need for a class for "evidence".  Perhaps he will 
elaborate when he has better email access.

Steve

On 7/4/2011 4:48 PM, John Wieczorek wrote:
> Darwin Core Issues 69 and 80: http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/issues/list
>
> This issue is related to the issue of Evidence (CollectionObject,
> Representation, Token, Unit) covered in a previous posting. In the
> Darwin Core there is currently no separate class to explicitly
> represent the biological entities involved in an Occurrence. This is
> problematic when trying to be explicit about the attributes of these
> entities in the semantic world. Various names have been given to this
> concept, including "Individual", "BiologicalIndividual",
> "BiologicalEntity", "Organism", and "DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit" in
> ABCD.
>
> Open Issues:
> Determine if there is a general consensus on the need for new class
> for this concept.
>
> The best name for this class.
>
> Create a new Type Vocabulary term referring to this new class.
>
> Decide which properties currently organized under Occurrence should
> instead be organized under this new class.
>
> As a seed for further discussion, here is a complete proposal.
> ==============
> Term Name: BiologicalEntity
> Identifier:	http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/BiologicalEntity
> Namespace:	http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/
> Label:	BiologicalEntity
> Definition:	The category of information pertaining to an individual organism or
> a group of organisms that can reliably be known to represent a single taxon.
> Comment:	 For discussion see
> http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/BiologicalEntity
> Type of Term:	http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Class
> Refines:	
> Status:	recommended
> Date Issued:	2011-07-04
> Date Modified:	2011-07-04
> Has Domain:	
> Has Range:	
> Version:	BiologicalEntity-2011-07-04
> Replaces:
> Is Replaced By:	
> Class:
> ABCD 2.06:	{DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/CultureCollectionUnit or
> DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/MycologicalUnit or
> DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/HerbariumUnit or
> DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/BotanicalGardenUnit or
> DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/PlantGeneticResourceUnit or
> DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/ZoologicalUnit or
> DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/PalaeontologicalUnit or
> DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/MultimediaObjects/MultimediaObject}
>
> Term Name: BiologicalEntity
> Identifier:	http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/dwctype/BiologicalEntity
> Namespace:	http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/dwctype/
> Label:	BiologicalEntity
> Definition:	A resource describing an instance of the BiologicalEntity class.
> Comment:	 For discussion see
> http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/DwCTypeVocabulary
> Type of Term:	http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Class
> Refines:	
> Status:	recommended
> Date Issued:	2011-07-04
> Date Modified:	2011-07-04
> Member Of:	http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/DwCType
> Has Domain:	
> Has Range:	
> Version:	BiologicalEntity-2011-07-04
> Replaces:	
> Is Replaced By:	
> Class:	
> ABCD 2.06:	not in ABCD
>
> Term Name: biologicalEntityID
> Identifier:	http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/biologicalEntityID
> Namespace:	http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/
> Label:	biologicalEntityID
> Definition:	An identifier for the set of information associated with
> an BiologicalEntity. May be a global unique identifier or an
> identifier specific to the data set.
> Comment:	For discussion see
> http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/BiologicalEntity
> Type of Term:	http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property
> Refines:	http://purl.org/dc/terms/identifier
> Status:	recommended
> Date Issued:	2011-07-04
> Date Modified:	2011-07-04
> Has Domain:	
> Has Range:	
> Version:	biologicalEntityID-2011-07-04
> Replaces:	individualID-2009-04-24
> Is Replaced By:
> Class:	http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/BiologicalEntity
> ABCD 2.06:	DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/
>
> Term Name: biologicalEntityRemarks
> Identifier:	http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/biologicalEntityRemarks
> Namespace:	http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/
> Label:	biologicalEntityRemarks
> Definition:	Comments or notes about the BiologicalEntity.
> Comment:	Example: "seen several times in Tilden Park before capture".
> For discussion see
> http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/CollectionObject
> Type of Term:	http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property
> Refines:	
> Status:	recommended
> Date Issued:	2011-07-04
> Date Modified:	2009-07-04
> Has Domain:	
> Has Range:	
> Version:	biologicalEntityRemarks-2011-07-04
> Replaces:	
> Is Replaced By:
> Class:	http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/BiologicalEntity
> ABCD 2.06:	DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/Notes
>
> Term Name: associatedBiologicalEntities
> Identifier:	http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/associatedBiologicalEntities
> Namespace:	http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/
> Label:	associatedBiologicalEntities
> Definition:	A list (concatenated and separated) of identifiers of
> other BiologicalEntity records and their associations to this
> BiologicalEntity.
> Comment:	Example: "sibling of MXA-231; sibling of MXA-232". For
> discussion see http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/BiologicalEntity
> Type of Term:	http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property
> Refines:	
> Status:	recommended
> Date Issued:	2011-07-04
> Date Modified:	2011-07-04
> Has Domain:	
> Has Range:	
> Version:	associatedBiologicalEntities-2011-07-04
> Replaces:	associatedOccurrences-2009-04-24
> Is Replaced By:	
> Class:	http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/BiologicalEntity
> ABCD 2.06:	DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/Associations/UnitAssociation/AssociatedUnitSourceInstitutionCode
> + DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/Associations/UnitAssociation/AssociatedUnitSourceName
> + DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/Associations/UnitAssociation/AssociatedUnitID
>
> Terms to be organized under biologicalEntity rather than Occurrence:
> previousIdentifications
> associatedMedia
> associatedReferences
> _______________________________________________
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> tdwg-content at lists.tdwg.org
> http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-content
>
> .
>

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

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