Missouri Botanical Garden Open Conference Systems, TDWG 2013 ANNUAL CONFERENCE

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Collaboratively Creating Computable Species Descriptions
Nathan Wilson

Building: Grand Hotel Mediterraneo
Room: Sala dei Continenti
Date: 2013-11-01 11:43 AM – 11:52 AM
Last modified: 2013-10-07

Abstract


The need for well-defined, persistent descriptions of species or more generally meaningful groups of organisms that can be accurately interpreted
 by computers is becoming increasingly clear. New resources such as the EOL TraitBank will help with sharing existing descriptions from sources such as existing online key systems. Historically, such descriptions have been created by a small number of expert authors using various, often incompatible systems. As a consequence the results are difficult to build upon even by other users of these systems much less the broader community of experts who may be able to meaningfully contribute. However, when this data is aggregated there is an increasing need for it to be accurately integrated. This need demands collaborative processes for reviewing and refining such descriptions, as well as improved standards for creating new descriptions.

This talk will describe a formal model for associating arbitrary computable descriptions with scientific names. It will start with example encodings of such descriptions using the Web Ontology Language (OWL) and a demonstration of a system for creating and sharing new descriptions online. A peer-review process for new or revised descriptions and for ontology extensions will be discussed. This peer-review process includes easy to use semantic templates for new features, along with workflows for collaborative ontology use and development.