[Taxacom] GBIF & BHL

[Stephen Thorpe]

Except that the person bringing these things together needs to know what they are doing (in the sense of being an expert in the taxonomic group and so being able to distinguish good data from bad)

Stephen

--------------------------------------------
On Tue, 14/10/14, Roderic Page <Roderic.Page at glasgow.ac.uk> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Taxacom] GBIF & BHL
 To: "Rod Page" <r.page at bio.gla.ac.uk>, "faunaplan at googlemail.com" <faunaplan at googlemail.com>, "Bob Mesibov" <mesibov at southcom.com.au>
 Cc: "TAXACOM" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
 Received: Tuesday, 14 October, 2014, 11:09 AM
 
 Hi Bob,
 
 Regarding "Now
 what"? I guess the answer depends on the properties if
 the data. Currently I'm working with data from GBIF,
 GenBank, and BOLD. There is a lot of overlap (GBIF may have
 a voucher for a DNA barcode that also appears in GenBank).
 Typically each database adds something to our information
 about that specimen, for example GenBank gives us links to
 literature publishing the sequence, BOLD often has images,
 as well as a taxonomic assignment to a BIN. Sometimes BOLD
 lacks geographical coordinates, but GBIF has them (and visa
 versa). I think a strong case can be made for the utility of
 bringing this information together, especially as no one
 data source has all the relevant information.
 
 Regards
 
 Rod
 
 Sent from
 Acompli<http://t.acompli.com/ac_sig>
 
 _____________________________
 From:
 Bob Mesibov <mesibov at southcom.com.au<mailto:mesibov at southcom.com.au>>
 Sent: Monday, October 13, 2014 21:57
 Subject: Re: [Taxacom] GBIF & BHL
 To: Rod Page <r.page at bio.gla.ac.uk<mailto:r.page at bio.gla.ac.uk>>,
 <faunaplan at googlemail.com<mailto:faunaplan at googlemail.com>>
 Cc: TAXACOM <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu<mailto:taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>>
 
 
 Rod, your
 suggestion is a good one but doesn't help us understand
 what happens next.Whether or not biodiversity data sources
 are machine readable, there is no reason for data providers
 to combine what they have with what others have provided.
 The result is that we have separate but overlapping data
 sources with differing content. My favourite example is
 Australian millipede records. These are available online
 from ALA/GBIF, various museum catalogues and as (machine
 parse-able) CSVs on the Millipedes of Australia website. The
 best and most complete source is MoA, which is not pointed
 to (or used) by ALA/GBIF.A 'meta-aggregator' could
 pull together all the machine-readable records for a
 particular species from all available online sources. Now
 what?-- Dr Robert MesibovHonorary Research AssociateQueen
 Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, andSchool of Land and Food,
 University of TasmaniaHome contact:PO Box 101, Penguin,
 Tasmania, Australia 7316(03) 64371195;
 61<tel:64371195;%2061> 3 64371195
 
 Rod, your suggestion is a good one but
 doesn't help us understand what happens next.
 
 Whether or not biodiversity
 data sources are machine readable, there is no reason for
 data providers to combine what they have with what others
 have provided. The result is that we have separate but
 overlapping data sources with differing content. My
 favourite example is Australian millipede records. These are
 available online from ALA/GBIF, various museum catalogues
 and as (machine parse-able) CSVs on the Millipedes of
 Australia website. The best and most complete source is MoA,
 which is not pointed to (or used) by ALA/GBIF.
 
 A 'meta-aggregator'
 could pull together all the machine-readable records for a
 particular species from all available online sources. Now
 what?
 --
 Dr Robert
 Mesibov
 Honorary Research Associate
 Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and
 School of Land and Food, University of
 Tasmania
 Home contact:
 PO
 Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
 (03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195
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