[Taxacom] Wikispecies as an open alternative to Catalogue of Life

[Curtis Clark]

On 12/15/2011 11:50 AM, Stephen Thorpe wrote:
> My approach is to strive to create a single classification that reflects current phylogenetic thinking as much as possible - a sort of middle ground pragmatic approach which admits that phylogeny is forever inconclusive, while at the same time not reverting to an extreme "classification is merely a filing cabinet" philosophy.

Is this a general principle of Wikispecies, or only your personal 
philosophy? I see it as somewhat of a deal-breaker. The most pragmatic 
approach balances stability and currency, but that makes the 
organization of what might otherwise be a good resource a moving target.

It also necessarily involves a *lot* of original research, perhaps not 
in the taxa you frequent, but certainly system-wide, since a lot of 
"current phylogenetic thinking" in specific groups has to be stitched 
together to make a global classification (not even to mention the 
decision for many species, genera, and families, whether to treat them 
under the ICZN or the ICN). I'm not saying that any of this is bad, but 
it's a really different goal from having a literature repository.

-- 
Curtis Clark        http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark
After 2012-01-02:
Biological Sciences                   +1 909 869 4140
Cal Poly Pomona, Pomona CA 91768