OK, Bob, I should have said "one of the main problems is ...", my bad   there is a big difference between management of a particular biosecurity crisis
(or whatever), and management of general taxonomic information for general
purposes   the fact, as you correctly note, that specialists are the most appropriate
people for the former (mostly from the point of view of identification, not name
information), does not imply that they are also the most appropriate for the
latter ...   Stephen    

________________________________ From: Bob Mesibov <mesi...@southcom.com.au> To: TAXACOM <taxa...@mailman.nhm.ku.edu> Sent: Monday, 20 February 2012 11:54 AM Subject: Re: [Taxacom] validation of taxon names

Ken Walker wrote:

'Why then are global social science websites such as Project Noah, iNaturalist,
iSpot, Mushroom Observer etc so popular, so well used and provide a vehicle for
non-specialists to make a contribution to biodiversity and Biosecurity? ... The
socialisation of science needs a "Gigantic All-Names All-Species Online
Taxonomic Resource (GAAOTR)".'

So one section of the 'we' is citizen scientists making and recording field
observations? Excellent. That gives us even more information than we already
have about the usual suspects (vertebrates, large and charismatic invertebrates,
flowering plants, large fruiting fungi). Is that 'we' going to be interested in
upgrading the info concerning the other 90+% of the biota in the GAAOTR?

Stephen Thorpe wrote:

"it is possible to achieve, but the main problem is stopping the proliferation
of errors along the acronym food chain ... as I'm sure Bob would agree?...  as I said in response to something that Chris Thompson said, I don't think that
working specialist taxonomists are necessarily the best people to do this,
although they should certainly be consulted along the way ..."

Sorry, I don't agree that the main problem in erecting a GAAOTR is stopping the
proliferation of errors. It's adding new taxa, something you've pointed out many
times on this list. Working specialist taxonomists are currently the people
doing this (although that could change in future). The tweaking of what's
already known can be done by non-specialists, sure, but when a biodiversity
crisis comes up (think of controlling an invasive species) and the GAAOTR
doesn't provide links to enough relevant info, it's back to the specialists, who
could have been consulted first, to save time.

-- Dr Robert Mesibov Honorary Research Associate Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316 Ph: (03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195 Webpage: http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/?articleID=570

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