[Zoobank-list] ZooBank

[David Patterson]

At the Nomina meeting held a week or so ago, the major 
nomenclators and checklists agreed to move forward on 
developing dynamic links to a central indexing 
environment.  The linked system is being referred to as 
the Global Names Architecture and GBIF will help guide its 
development.  The EoL Informatics group have agreed to 
assist in helping to make this happen, and we will explore 
the new TAPIR environment as an intermediary in this 
exercise.  Even if ZooBank does not hold vernacular names, 
those names could be held elsehwere - in a new environment 
or in the uBio NameBank or elsewhere.   Assuming the 
vernacular names are linked to scientific names, the GNA 
would allow the holdings in ZOoBank and the holdings in 
the vernacular repository to be dynamically linked.

There are important reasons to want to have vernacular 
names, as an array of regulatory bodies refer to organisms 
by the vernacular names and or require formal documents to 
use vernacular names.

David Patterson


On Tue, 6 Mar 2007 16:42:10 -0500
  "Weitzman, Anna" <WEITZMAN at si.edu> wrote:
>First, I don't think that anyone is proposing to type all 
>this in.  We are proposing to extract from the literature 
>using technology.  Humans will, of course, have to 
>interpret most of the taxonomic and nomenclatural acts, 
>but that would be true in any case.
> 
> I don't think that anyone suggested that Zoobank should 
>want all the vernacular names (I certainly did not), but 
>there have been many very loud calls for them (in all 
>languages and alphabets) for GBIF at least.
> 
> If we extract using computer programs from digitized 
>literature, why would we not want vernacular names (and 
>other things) indexed someplace?  I certainly have heard 
>a lot of people say that they would.  Just because we, as 
>taxonomists rarely use vernacular names, we should not 
>exclude others who may want to use them to find out what 
>the species name is or any of a thousand other uses.
> 
> Cheers,
> Anna
> 
> Anna L. Weitzman, PhD
> Informatics Branch Chief, ITO
> Informatics, Botany and Biodiversity Research
> National Museum of Natural History
> Smithsonian Institution
> 
> 202.633.0846
> weitzman at si.edu
> 
> ________________________________
> 
>From: zoobank-list-bounces at afriherp.org on behalf of Arie 
>W. Janssen
> Sent: Tue 06-Mar-07 4:32 PM
> To: 'Zoobank Discussion List (ICZN)'
> Subject: [Zoobank-list] ZooBank
> 
> 
> Well, gentlemen .... and ladies of course (if there were 
>any),
> 
> I've been reading the discussion, so far. There's been a 
>lot of idealism, a lot of discussion on details, on 
>format etc. etc. 
> 
> I just wonder .... if we really want to build a ZooBank 
>as seems to be needed ... who the heck is going to pay 
>the more than a thousand (qualified) clerks/typists we 
>will  need to actually DO the job, within 20 or more 
>years ? Idealism is nice, but for heaven's sake, let's be 
>practical .... vernacular names ???? Why, why, why ??  Do 
>you really want the 'tractorwieltje' (wordlwide known as 
>Armiger cristata) included in ZooBank ? Or similar 
>ridiculous names in Dutch or other languages ?
> 
> I, for my sake, I am happy with the ICZN rulings and 
>lists .... everything additional might be nice, but again 
>... who's going to do the job ? Not me, for sure ! Are we 
>going to make something like Wikipedia, where everybody 
>is allowed to improve somebody else's input ? Where's the 
>value then ? What we need is authority, and THAT's 
>exactly what ICZN provides us with ! Everything else to 
>me seems superfluous, and confusing !
> 
> Best regards from a small Mediterranean island !
> 
> 
> Arie W. Janssen, Gozo, Malta
> ariewjanssen at waldonet.net.mt
> 
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David J Patterson
Bay Paul Center
Marine Biological Laboratory
Woods Hole
Massachusetts 02543
USA

Phone: 1 508 289 7260
FAX: 508-457-4727

http://www.mbl.edu/microscope
http://www.mbl.edu/research/resident/lab_baypaul.html

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