1. Nomina I. February 2007, Crete.

Nomina 1

Date: February 19th -20th 2007.

Location: Institute of Marine Biology and Genetics (HCMR), Crete

Activities: Establish the framework for a persistent forum (the Nomina series of workshops) and architecture (GNA) that would lead to the creation of synchronized cross-walks among major names providers and a central index (GNI).

Participants:

• WOUTER ADDINK, ETI
• CHRISTOS ARVANITIDIS, MarBEF-PROPE
• FRANK BISBY, Species 2000
• MARC BRUGMAN, ETI
• CORNELIA BUCHEN-OSMOND, ICTVdB
• ELLEN FARR, Index Nominum Genericorum
• SARAH FAULWETTER, MarBEF-PROPE
• MIKE GUIRY, AlgaeBase
• ROGER HYAM, TDWG
• YDE DE JONG, Fauna Europaea
• PAUL KIRK, Index Fungorum
• PATRICK LEARY, MBL/WHOI Library
• ELLIOT LEFKOWITZ, University of Alabama @ Birmingham
• YUNG-CHANG (JACK) LIN, Taibnet
• CHRIS LYAL, ECAT Scientific Committee
• CATHY NORTON, MBL/WHOI Library
• THOMAS ORRELL, ITIS
• ALAN PATON, IPNI / Kew
• DAVID J. PATTERSON, MBL EoL Informatics Team
• ANDREW POLASZEK, ZooBank
• TONY REES, CSIRO
• DAVID REMSEN, GBIF
• NEIL SARKAR, MBL/WHOI Library
• EDWARD VANDEN BERGHE, VLIZ
• KAREN WILSON, IOPI

Objective:

Names form the most accessible means of indexing the information about organisms upon which an on-line Encyclopedia of Life (EoL) will depend. EoL must have a unified, comprehensive and current index to the content that it wishes to display. The vision is to unify all names information through the creation of synchronized cross-walks among major names providers and a central index. This will ensure that all users of names, not only EoL, can benefit from immediate access to authoritative information. It is hoped that this meeting will lead to a persistent forum for discussion of 'names-for-informatics' issues.

• The concept of dynamic and synchronized interconnections among names providers and a common index is referred to as a Global Names Architecture (GNA).
• The GNA was endorsed as highly desirable. Based on the experiences of Index Fungorum, such a structure can be expected to: (a) increase the use of knowledge; (b) increase the visibility of participating organizations; (c) increase the availability of knowledge to users by for example reducing the emergence of new homonyms; (d) link names to taxonomically relevant literature. The compilation of names will assist: (i) in gap analysis; (ii) increase feedback for quality control; (iii) reduce duplication; (iv) accelerate the development of content; (v) promote consistency of taxonomic practices; (vi) promote a comprehensive names registry; (vii) promote collaboration on technical issues; (viii) promote the value and importance of taxonomy and taxonomists.
• The primary uses of the GNA are (1) the avoidance of homonyms and (2) access to nomenclatural and associated information (in that order).
• The discussion of the Global Names Architecture focused on ‘Names-as-strings’ - being any alphanumeric string used to refer to a taxon, but with emphasis on scientific names, code-compliant names, and vernacular names.
• To address concern that a Global Names Architecture would erode the identity of data sources, GNA must redirect visitors to source databases. GNA must maintain usage data so that Content Partners can be provided with appropriate credit.
• The possible emergence of multiple copies of names lists can be addressed by GNA being a dynamic index and not a repository of names and associated nomenclatural data.
• The Global Names Architecture should be promoted as a structure owned by the primary names providers
• GNA should be implemented as soon as possible, as an extension of the GBIF All Genera Index. A portal with access to all generic names should be made available within 2007. The target for GNA to link Content Partners of all available species names was set at 2010.
• The GNA will provide a unique identifier for every name-string, and that the index must also catalog the source identifier to enable credit and links to the source
• The development of this architecture will be co-ordinated by GBIF and the EoL Informatics team.
• Subsequent to the workshop, TDWG has recommended that the new TAPIR environment be used as the ‘abstract layer’ to normalize the content of different databases, and its use in establishing the Global Names Architecture should serve as a test of the names dimensions of TAPIR, and that feedback should be provided to TDWG for improvements to the relevant TAPIR protocols.
• It is important that the GNA embraces vernacular names as vernacular names are used by legislative bodies and in formal documents in a number of countries. As vernacular names can be highly ambiguous, they can only be compiled after the compilation of scientific names and disambiguated by linking to scientific names.
• It is important that the GNA embraces names of fossils.
• The names cannot be visible within the context of a single classification scheme, and so the GNA model must accommodate multiple classifications

PERSISTENT FORUM

• The meeting felt that Nomina should become a series of occasional meetings to allow necessary dialog to continue. A second meeting was proposed to emphasize issues relating to the checklists of species names. Tom Orrell (ITIS) and Frank Bisby (Species2000) agreed to co-ordinate such a meeting
• Nomina1 recommended that an advisory group to oversee the Global Names Architecture, but did not constitute such a group. We propose to use this report to implement that recommendation, suggesting that the Nomina Advisory Group be composed of a representative of each major nomenclator and compilers of global checklists. This group should be able to add additional members as required. This group to be ratified at Nomina2. The convener of this group has yet to be determined, but will probably be GBIF.