[tdwg-content] Delimiters for Darwin Core list-type terms

[John Wieczorek]

Dear all,

There has been some momentum toward solutions to the problems as
originally presented. I would like to summarize what I perceive as the
middle ground between them and ask anyone with dissenting opinions to
please express them in reply.

a) Make all of the changes in the term definitions rather than in type
3 documentation.

b) Retain unchanged the definitions of terms on the list I gave that
are already described without reference to being a list
(informationWitheld, dataGeneralizations, vernacularName).

c) For terms that are designed to contain lists (dynamicProperties,
recordedBy, preparations, otherCatalogNumbers,
previousIdentifications, associatedMedia, associatedReferences,
associatedOccurrences, associatedSequences, associatedTaxa,
higherGeography, georeferencedBy, georeferenceSources, identifiedBy,
identificationReferences, typeStatus, higherClassification,
measurementDeterminedBy), recommend in the term definition that the
list be delimited with a vertical bar '|' and no white space. Please
note that I missed some terms from this category in my original list.

Here is an example of what such a definition might look like:

higherClassification: "A list (concatenated and separated) of taxa
names terminating at the rank immediately superior to the taxon
referenced in the taxon record. Recommended best practice is to order
the list starting with the highest rank and separate the names for
each rank with a vertical bar ('|')."

d) For terms in the list in c), above, include one example with a
single value (where appropriate) and one example with a list showing
the concatenation with the delimiter.

Here is an example of what such a comment might look like:

georeferencedBy: "Example: "Brad Millen (ROM)", "Kristina Yamamoto
(MVZ)|Janet Fang (MVZ)".

e) For higherGeography, recommend an order for the terms in the list
from least specific to most specific.

f) For associatedTaxa, change the comment to use a format equivalent
to that for dynamicProperties.

g) Defer other concerns with specific terms. If these persists beyond
the current conversation, I encourage you to submit a Term Definition
issue in the issue tracker
(https://code.google.com/p/darwincore/issues/list).

Cheers,

John