Dear everyone
Your points are taken. We will develop the possibility to add pictures to
voucher specimen information (there are others who have requested this as
well, so actually it was on our to-do list).
The major source of pictures in WoRMS comes from the MarBEF speciesgallery:
http://www.marbef.org/speciesgallery, where everyone can submit pictures of
species and they have the possibility to link them to a species name in our
database.
We thought we should build an email warning system once a picture is
uploaded, so that the taxonomic editor can verify the identity. But I also
agree that we should only show pictures on our species register once they
have been vetted by the taxonomic experts. As a taxonomic expert you can now
already add/edit and delete pictures. Actually only experts can add pictures
via WoRMS.
I resume: Taxonomic experts only can add pictures via WoRMS and these
immediately appear on the website. Pictures added via MarBEF or other
sources to our pictures database are only displayed in WoRMS after a quality
check by the experts.
for the near future,
Best regards,
Ward
WoRMS data manager
-------------
Ward Appeltans
Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee
Flanders Marine Institute
VLIZ - InnovOcean site
Wandelaarkaai 7, 8400 Oostende Belgium
Web: <http://www.vliz.be/> http://www.vliz.be
Phone: +32(0)59/34 01 55
Email: <mailto:ward.appeltans from vliz.be> ward.appeltans from vliz.be
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_____
From: Edward Vanden Berghe [mailto:evberghe from iobis.org]
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2008 12:27 AM
To: 'Sergio Salazar'; 'Nancy Maciolek'
Cc: annelida from magpie.bio.indiana.edu; info from marinespecies.org;
grassle from marine.rutgers.edu; g.read from niwa.co.nz
Subject: RE: WoRMS project Re: [Annelida] Clymenura polaris
originaldescription
Hi all,
The most important thing, IMHO, is not to have voucher specimens or expert
identification with each and every picture, but to offer visitors to the web
site a clear and objective way of judging the degree of belief they should
attach to an identification. Obviously the gold standard is a picture of a
voucher specimen identified by an acknowledged authority. We have some
pictures like that, but unfortunately only a very small fraction of our
collection meets that standard. As long as we make sure that end users know
what degree of confidence they can have in de identification, I don't see a
problem in this. This being said, I like the idea of a 'moderated' list -
where everyone can submit, but pictures are only shown after the taxonomist
has 'approved' the identification. An intermediate solution could be to hide
un-moderated pictures by default, and only show them after the user has been
made to see a health warning.
There are tables to store information on specimens - I do not think that
these have links to the pictures right now; that is another issue we might
want to improve. Also, it's clear that the pictures of specimens, in
taxonomic terms, will be more valuable than field pictures. So if we do
create links between specimens and pictures, we should look for ways to
bring these to the taxon details page, rather than to hide them on the
specimens details page, one click away from the main taxon details page.
Cheers,
Edward
_____
From: Sergio Salazar [mailto:savs551216 from hotmail.com]
Sent: 07 February 2008 17:20
To: Nancy Maciolek; evberghe from iobis.org
Cc: annelida from magpie.bio.indiana.edu; info from marinespecies.org;
grassle from marine.rutgers.edu; g.read from niwa.co.nz
Subject: RE: WoRMS project Re: [Annelida] Clymenura polaris
originaldescription
Dear friends,
Most of the pictures available in internet cannot be linked to a voucher
specimen. After several unsuccessful attempts to get some deep water
specimens, nicely photographed in several websites, Leslie Harris has told
me that most photographers of underwater creatures feel better by making the
photographs than collecting, killing, and preserving the specimen.
I have noticed that despite the impressive organisms being depicted, there
are no means to check some of the certainly less spectacular, but diagnostic
features in the specimen, simply because there is no specimen at all.
I support Nancy's and Kristian's suggestion and wish we have more voucher
materials backing up both, photographs and ecological studies.
Un abrazo,
Sergio
_____
Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 16:38:48 -0500
From: njmaciolek from gmail.com
To: evberghe from iobis.org
Subject: Re: WoRMS project Re: [Annelida] Clymenura polaris
originaldescription
CC: annelida from magpie.bio.indiana.edu; info from marinespecies.org;
grassle from marine.rutgers.edu; g.read from niwa.co.nz
Edward wrote:
"While we are very restrictive on who we give edit rights to the taxonomic
information, anyone can upload pictures, and put a name on it; and the
picture would automatically appear on the authoritative page of the species,
thus confounding very rigorously controlled edited content with something
over which we have no control at all."
Why not restrict the posting of pictures in the same way that you restrict
editing of text? Alternatively, put the pictures in a moderation queue so
that they do not appear automatically, but only after they have been
approved. There is no advantage to building a pictorial database quickly if
it contains errors, whether small or egregious.
best wishes,
Nancy
Nancy J. Maciolek, Ph.D.
Polychaete Editor, Zootaxa
http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/index.html
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