September 2017 - tdwg-content

Re: [tdwg-content] If you need something for referring to a population, then it is probably best to do it as a related class
by Nico Franz 05 Jun '25

05 Jun '25

Hello all: I have a few inserted comments, hopefully with some clarifying effect: On 5/4/2011 10:54 AM, Peter DeVries wrote: > Hi Steve, > > I may have overloaded the term specimen to make the explanation easier > to follow. > > A specimen could be an individual or it could be part of an individual. > > To some extent you need to think about how these models will be used. > > If you subscribe to the model that a species is whatever a taxonomists > says it is then it is difficult to make statements like. > > X% of the world's species will be extinct by 2050. > > If you mean a species as defined by the concept documented at this URI > which is supported by these specimens, images, and DNA then you are on > firmer ground. > > Species in the natural world do a pretty good job recognizing those > individuals that are appropriate mates. In other words members of > their own species. > > Are we modeling species or variations in human conceptualizations of > species? > >> Assuming that there was only one individual organism identified >> there is really one one species (or hybrid). > Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Please Nico C., don't take this one up! > > > I stick with this. Assuming you don't have a hybrid individual. That > individual is one species. The fact that human may disagree on what > species it is a human issue. > > Again, Are we modeling species or variations in human > conceptualizations of species? NMF: I believe there is a history of biodiversity database engineering that actually led some people, initially in Australia (Greg Whitbread?) and Europe (Berendsohn's group) to place more emphasis on modeling human conceptualizations of taxa. I understand this happened in the late 80s / early 90s. The motivation was, apparently, that no long-term consensus seemed available to model a single and sufficiently widely accepted taxonomy of, say, Central European vascular plant species or mosses. I believe that projects such as the Euro + Med PlantBase (http://www.emplantbase.org/home.html) are examples of the persistence (success?) of this 20+ year old practice. I think this is the kind of background that Steve is referring to. > > Which of these is of primary importance to decision makers and > non-taxonomist biologists? > Part of the problem with various publications relating to ontologies > and taxonomy is that their species models entail a specific > phylogenetic hypothesis. > > In the real world taxa are not as clean as some would like to make > them out to be. > > Each individual is a unique combination of thousands of separate gene > lineages which often do not follow clean monophyletic paths. > > I would argue that most of those who work with species related data > see them as useful typological constructs which in general follow the > biological species model. NMF: The solution of how to properly model things such as species in RDF, OWL (etc.) should ideally accommodate all "species concepts" (BCS, ESC, PSC, GSC, there's dozens), i.e. it should be neutral towards this issue. The examples below are too simple, ignoring for example cases such as pro parte synonymy, or a concept ("species") that appears unique and monophyletic to one author but (vastly) polyphyletic to another. To do an accurate mapping in that latter case (which is not super-common but it's real), I think one would have to come down on saying we're modeling human conceptualizations. They are not just that, so really it's not a strict dichotomy, meaning that by modeling conceptualizations we do not have to say "the species only exist on our heads", or "well, then anything goes". I agree (sheepishly) that it does come down to what the input data look like, and what the expectations are towards just accommodating the user community versus pushing them in a particular direction. Some of this also on p. 47 of this PDF: https://journals.ku.edu/index.php/jbi/article/view/3927/3852 > > /Aedes triseriatus/ owl:sameAs /Ochlerotatus triseriatus/ > > Others seem to see them as phylogenetic end nodes which entail a > specific phylogenetic history. > > /Aedes triseriatus/ distinctFrom /Ochlerotatus triseriatus/ > / > / > If you are primarily interested in understanding issues of ecology, > disease, diversity and conservation the former model is more > appropriate than the later. > > Respectfully, > > - Pete Regards, Nico Nico M. Franz, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Director, UPRM Invertebrate Collection Department of Biology University of Puerto Rico Call Box 9000 Mayagüez, PR 00681-9000 Phone: (787) 832-4040, ext. 3005 Fax: (787) 834-3673 E-mail: nico.franz(a)upr.edu Laboratory website: http://academic.uprm.edu/~franz/ UPRM-INVCOL: http://uprm-invcol-project.tumblr.com/

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Webinar: Crowdsourcing Basics: What is it, and will it work for your collection? - the Milwaukee Public Museum experience
by Deborah Paul 15 Sep '17

15 Sep '17

Greetings All, RE: Crowdsourcing Basics: What is crowdsourcing, and will it work for your collection? - the Milwaukee Public Museum experience. WHEN: Wednesday 20 September at 12 PM EDT, 11 AM CDT. WHERE: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/room (Headsets for best experience!). WHO: Presenters: Alyssa Caywood, Collection Digitization Project Manager, Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) and Julia Colby, Vertebrate & Invertebrate Collections Manager MPM; Moderator: Elizabeth (Libby) Ellwood, Research Fellow - LaBrea Tar Pits, WeDigBio organizer (and former iDigBio Post Doc). Abstract. Crowdsourced transcription projects are used by collection managers across the country to fulfill their data entry capture needs. Intrigued, but not sure crowdsourcing is right for you and your collection? Our discussion will cover evaluating your collection and planning a crowdsource transcription project, plus suggest platforms and tips for evaluating which platform might work for you. We will share what we’ve learned from crowdsourcing transcriptions for our own collections and from hosting a WeDigBio event in 2016. Join us to explore whether crowdsourcing is a tool that you should add to your data management toolbox. And, find out more about ways to participate in WeDigBio 2017 https://www.wedigbio.org/. Please share -- this is crowdsourcing afterall! See you Wednesday, Deborah Paul, on behalf of Alyssa, Julia, and Libby Tips for best webinar experience: https://www.idigbio.org/wiki/index.php/Web_Conferencing -- -- Upcoming iDigBio Events https://www.idigbio.org/calendar -- Deborah Paul, iDigBio Digitization and Workforce Training Specialist iDigBio -- Steering Committee Member, SPNHC Liaison and Member-At-Large, SYNTHESYS3 Representative Institute for Digital Information, 234 LSB Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306 850-644-6366

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Webinar: Crowdsourcing Basics: What is it, and will it work for your collection? - the Milwaukee Public Museum experience
by Deborah Paul 15 Sep '17

15 Sep '17

Greetings All, RE: Crowdsourcing Basics: What is crowdsourcing, and will it work for your collection? - the Milwaukee Public Museum experience. WHEN: Wednesday 20 September at 12 PM EDT, 11 AM CDT. WHERE: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/room (Headsets for best experience!). WHO: Presenters: Alyssa Caywood, Collection Digitization Project Manager, Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) and Julia Colby, Vertebrate & Invertebrate Collections Manager MPM; Moderator: Elizabeth (Libby) Ellwood, Research Fellow - LaBrea Tar Pits, WeDigBio organizer (and former iDigBio Post Doc). Abstract. Crowdsourced transcription projects are used by collection managers across the country to fulfill their data entry capture needs. Intrigued, but not sure crowdsourcing is right for you and your collection? Our discussion will cover evaluating your collection and planning a crowdsource transcription project, plus suggest platforms and tips for evaluating which platform might work for you. We will share what we’ve learned from crowdsourcing transcriptions for our own collections and from hosting a WeDigBio event in 2016. Join us to explore whether crowdsourcing is a tool that you should add to your data management toolbox. And, find out more about ways to participate in WeDigBio 2017. Please share -- this is crowdsourcing afterall! See you Wednesday, Deborah Paul, on behalf of Alyssa, Julia, and Libby Tips for best webinar experience: https://www.idigbio.org/wiki/index.php/Web_Conferencing -- -- Upcoming iDigBio Events https://www.idigbio.org/calendar -- Deborah Paul, iDigBio Digitization and Workforce Training Specialist iDigBio -- Steering Committee Member, SPNHC Liaison and Member-At-Large, SYNTHESYS3 Representative Institute for Digital Information, 234 LSB Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306 850-644-6366

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Darwin Core Hour 9: Kurator Web - for Cleaner Biodiversity Data
by Deborah Paul 14 Sep '17

14 Sep '17

Hi Everyone, Please excuse cross-postings. RE: Darwin Core Hour 9: Kurator Web - for Cleaner Biodiversity Data After hearing from aggregators last month, and all about the Data Quality efforts of the TDWG DQ IG in September, we shift gears to a project called "Kurator" which offers a suite of tools that any data provider (individual or institution) can use to investigate data quality. DAY and TIME: Tuesday Oct 24 @ 11 AM EDT, 12 PM ART, 3 PM UTC, 5 PM CEST DETAILED Abstract: https://www.idigbio.org/content/darwin-core-hour-kurator-web-cleaner-biodiv… WHERE: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/room Related Links Kurator Web http://kurator.acis.ufl.edu/kurator-web/ Kurator Web code https://github.com/kurator-org/kurator-web Kurator Workflows https://github.com/kurator-org/kurator-validation/wiki Abstract. When we think about biodiversity data and its use, we often immediately wonder about the data quality and how to improve it. The Kurator project is one of the initiatives addressing this issue, and aims at building data quality control and enhancement tools that can be readily used by people with different technical skill levels. One such tool is the Kurator Web application. This tool allows users to execute web-based data quality improvement workflows on biodiversity data, especially on data shared using Darwin Core terms, without the need for programming expertise. In this webinar we will demonstrate the use of Kurator Web to run pre-existing data quality workflows, some of which include: aligning datasets with Darwin Core terms, comparing unique values in datasets with controlled vocabularies, and providing suggestions for improvements for existing data. Finally, we will provide some context on how these tools can integrate with broader workflows and some perspective on the future of biodiversity data quality. Brought to you by the Darwin Core Hour Team - Connecting Biodiversity Data Communities Deb Paul, et al PS Check out past and future DCH Webinars https://github.com/tdwg/dwc-qa/wiki/Webinars Hints for best Adobe Connect experience: https://www.idigbio.org/wiki/index.php/Web_Conferencing Let us know if you'd like to moderate / present / plan future Darwin Core Hours https://tinyurl.com/zja2muz -- -- Upcoming iDigBio Events https://www.idigbio.org/calendar -- Deborah Paul, iDigBio Digitization and Workforce Training Specialist iDigBio -- Steering Committee Member, SPNHC Liaison and Member-At-Large, SYNTHESYS3 Representative Institute for Digital Information, 234 LSB Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306 850-644-6366

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Darwin Core Hour 8: A bite from the core - testing for data quality
by Deborah Paul 04 Sep '17

04 Sep '17

Hi Everyone, RE: Darwin Core Hour 8: A bite from the core - testing for data quality In this upcoming episode of Darwin Core Hour (DCH), we head down under to join Arthur D. Chapman and Lee Belbin for a conversation about Darwin Core and Data Quality. We'll hear about collaborative efforts across the aggregator community (specifically GBIF, VertNet, ALA, and iDigBio) to harmonize data quality algorithms for the downstream data use by researchers, developers, etc. These efforts are the result of the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) Data Quality Interest Group (DQIG) work to develop a suite of common, shared tests and data format expectations for use by aggregators. TIME: (please check carefully, the international dateline is involved in this DCH) 7 AM Wednesday Sept 6th (Tasmania) 5 PM Tuesday Sept 5th (USA EDT) 6 PM Tuesday Sept 5th (Buenos Aires) 21:00 UTC Tuesday Sept 5th DETAILED Abstract: https://www.idigbio.org/content/darwin-core-hour-bite-core-testing-data-qua… WHERE: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/room Read more about these Test and Assertions on the DQIG Wiki https://github.com/tdwg/bdq/wiki/Task-Group-2-(Tests-and-Assertions)-of-the-'Data-Quality'-Interest-Group-seek-your-comments Related Links Your questions here: https://tinyurl.com/zja2muz BDIQ GitHub: https://github.com/tdwg/bdq Data Quality Tests: http://bit.ly/2uY3FoA Principles: http://bit.ly/2vqoGsK Brought to you by the Darwin Core Hour Team - Connecting Biodiversity Data Communities Deb Paul, et al PS Check out past and future DCH Webinars https://github.com/tdwg/dwc-qa/wiki/Webinars Hints for best Adobe Connect experience: https://www.idigbio.org/wiki/index.php/Web_Conferencing Let us know if you'd like to moderate / present / plan future Darwin Core Hours https://tinyurl.com/zja2muz -- -- Upcoming iDigBio Eventshttps://www.idigbio.org/calendar -- Deborah Paul, iDigBio Digitization and Workforce Training Specialist iDigBio -- Steering Committee Member, SPNHC Liaison and Member-At-Large, SYNTHESYS3 Representative Institute for Digital Information, 234 LSB Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306 850-644-6366

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