In praise of grumpy old men: Open versus closed data and the challenge of creating a 21st century flora

In praise of grumpy old men

@rdmpagehttp://iphylo.blogspot.comChair @GBIF Science Committee

#fm10ed

Leon Croizat Tracks=Panbiogeography

Gary Nelson & Norm PlatnickPhylogeny+ geography= cladistic biogeography

Ted Nelson Hyperlinks and hypermediaTwo-way links and “transclusion”= Xanadu

Tim Berners-LeeHTTP, URL, HTMLOne-way links= world wide web

Web page Other web page

Web linking, one way, document-level, “target” doesn’t know that it is linked to (“cited”), link can break (404)

text

Work Source

text

Xanadu linking, two way, fragment-level, “source” knows it is linked to, source content is embedded, links don’t break

Xanadu

Wait, WTF has this to do with floras?!

What is a flora?

• Draw polygon (shape) on map

• Get list of all species within that polygon

• Get original descriptions/revisions for those species

• Add locally relevant information

• Mash together (“mashup”), and we’re done!

iSpecies.org for Horsfieldia

A New Account of the Genus Horsfieldia (Myristicaceae), Pt 2W J J O De WildeThe Gardens' bulletin, Singapore 38(1): 55-144 (1985)

http://biostor.org/reference/175018

Horsfieldia lancifolia

Flora Malesiana. Series I - Seed Plants, Volume 14. Myristicaceae

DescriptionDescription

Flora Article

Embedding text and images

Embedding data

van Balgooy 3973

van Balgooy 3973

Description

Article Specimen

{"key": 1139234988,"scientificName":

"Horsfieldia lancifolia W.J.J.O. de Wilde","kingdom": "Plantae","phylum": "Tracheophyta","order": "Magnoliales","family": "Myristicaceae","genus": "Horsfieldia","species": "Horsfieldia

lancifolia","genericName":

"Horsfieldia","specificEpithet":

"lancifolia","taxonRank": "SPECIES","decimalLongitude": 121.75,"decimalLatitude": -2.25,"continent": "ASIA","stateProvince": "Sulawesi","year": 1979,"month": 7,"day": 11,"occurrenceID":

"http://data.biodiversitydata.nl/naturalis/specimen/L.1769594”}

Data

(GBIF)

Data

Xanadu in the 21st century?

text

Article Annotations

table

annotation

annotation

@hypothes_is

Annotating a scientific paper

Aggregating annotations (iPhylo)http://iphylo.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/aggregating-annotations-on-scientific_30.html

Deep linking requires a culture of being open

@okfn

www.theplantlist.org

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The Plant List 1.1

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http://doi.org/10.15468/btkum2

Open versus closed data and the challenge of creating a 21stC flora

1. Data needs to be open (e.g., scientific names – IPNI, I’m looking at you)

2. Scientific literature needs to be open access (taxonomists I’m looking at you)

3. Question: How do we make (1) and (2) happen?