NaviKey (http://www.navikey.net) is an application for querying descriptive data and for generating interactive matrix-based multi-access identification keys. The software, programmed in Java, is platform-independent and applicable either as a browser applet or as a stand-alone application. It provides access to DELTA-coded content data (http://delta-intkey.com/www/standard.htm) and to any SQL relational database based on the DiversityDescriptions information model (http://www.diversityworkbench.net/Portal/DiversityDescriptions). Compilations and source code of NaviKey starting from v. 2.30 up to the current release v. 5.01 can be downloaded under http://www.navikey.net/#download. The source code is open in the sense of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) (http://www.opensource.org/) and available under GNU v. 2 license.

In its current version, NaviKey provides various options for including accessory data by specifically evoking external web pages. This may concern taxonomic names and synonyms, images, literature, and many other types of data from any kind of web portal. The current character-per-taxon state lists will eventually be turned into dynamically generated natural language taxon descriptions. In its stand-alone version, NaviKey allows off-line data queries, which can be useful in remote regions of the World with no or low bandwidth internet connection. More than 20 internet portals and sites in Europe, Asia and North America already provide zoological, mycological, and botanical descriptive data using a NaviKey browser applet.

An example of the use of NaviKey as a GUI is LIAS (with LIAS light: http://liaslight.lias.net/), which uses it for querying lichen diversity data. The LIAS multi-authored Global Species Database currently includes data for over half of the accepted 15,000 lichen taxa. The database contents so far are available in English, Esperanto, French, Persian (Farsi), German, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish. Such multilingualism may be considered a significant contribution to the development of biodiversity research and teaching in countries where information flow still has to overcome language obstacles.