[Zoobank-list] GBIF GUID Workshop Report

[Richard Pyle]

Dear ZooBank Community,

This message was jointly written by Simon Coppard (Development officer for
ICZN) and Richard Pyle (one of the ZooBank authors).  It is being sent
through Richard's email account only because Simon did not have his laptop
with him at the time this was written.

We both attended the GBIF-sponsored workshop on GUIDs (Globally unique
Identifiers) for biodiversity data
(http://wiki.gbif.org/guidwiki/wikka.php).  Needless to say, taxonomy and
nomenclature are a major component of that effort.

What is extremely clear to both of us from this 3-day workshop, is that the
biological data community is moving forward quickly with mechanisms to
assign GUIDs to biological data objects (including taxon names) -- i.e.,
within the next 2-3 months.  The other nomenclatural communities (botanical,
mycological, etc.) have extensive nomenclatural datasets (e.g., IPNI, Index
Fungorum, etc.) that are ready to participate actively in this process --
both in developing the procedures for assigning and issuing GUIDs to taxon
names, and committing to serving those GUIDs via the internet.

It was obvious that the workshop organizers and participants want the
zoological community to participate in this process, ideally speaking as
"one voice" represented by ZooBank/ICZN.  If we (the zoological community)
wish to be a part of the development and decision-making process, we need to
act SOON.

What this means is that we need a clear idea of what, if any, data content
ZooBank will be able to provide in the short-term future.

Do we, as a group, wish to be a part of this important process?  (We both
believe that we should!) If so, we need to begin coordinating with the other
(non-zoological) nomenclators (who will be coordinating amongst themselves)
well in advance of the next GBIF workshop on GUIDs (likely to be May of this
year).

As a point of clarification, we're not talking about establishing a "live"
registry of taxon names right now (we can take our time on that without
being left behind). Rather, it is about having a voice in how international
nomenclatural data exchange standards are set and implemented, and
committing to serve as a unified "face" of the zoological nomenclatural
community as a provider of GUIDs for zoological names (to whatever extend
ZooBank will have access to data on existing names).

Sincerely,

Simon Coppard, ICZN
simc at nhm.ac.uk

Richard Pyle, Bishop Museum
deepreef at bishopmuseum.org

P.S. These are our own personal interpretations after participating in the
GBIF workshop, and not necessarily the views of our respective
organizations.