Trends and Developments in Biodiversity Informatics

Symposium: Key Innovations in Biodiversity Informatics

Roundtable Discussion on 'Biological Names Servers'

Organizer: Lois Blaine, American Type Culture Collection
Discussion Leaders: Marc Geoffroy, Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem; Andrew Jones, Cardiff University; David Remsen, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole; David Thau, ALL Species; Crispen Wilson, Biodiversity & Conservation Information System

The key access point to the world's biodiversity information is via the 'names' of the biological entities that comprise its biota. Throughout history, "names", i.e., character strings, have been assigned to these entities in an attempt to distinguish one from another and to provide a base point for comparison of their characteristics and classification into taxonomic hierarchies. Rules of nomenclature have been developed by international societies to give some order to naming conventions. However, as our biodiversity knowledge base has increased, it has become abundantly clear that a "name" is not sufficient to precisely identify a biological entity. The literature and other databases are replete with examples of incorrect, duplicated, synonymous, and obsolete names that are attached to concept descriptions. This leads to confusion and misinformation that often proliferates as it finds its way into new data resources.

In response to this dilemma, numerous efforts are underway to develop data resources that address the problems inherent in retrieval of biodiversity information via the names of organisms. This Roundtable on "Name Servers" will provide a forum for discussion on the key requirements for bringing order to the chaotic situation regarding biological names and the entities they represent.

Discussion leaders present will overviews on 'name server' projects they are developing and will offer opinions on questions such as the following, while encouraging input from Forum participants.

• What is the primary purpose of a 'name server'?
• Should taxonomic concepts be an integral part of a 'name server'?
• If so, how can a 'name server' deal with competing taxonomies?
• Is extensive human intervention necessary to deal with the history of names, synonymy, name changes, etc. or are there automated methods to handle these problems?
• What are the practical limits of providing access to ALL biological names?
• Is it best to initiate a 'name server' resource by gathering all names possible and then sorting out the more complicated issues, or by working with prototype subsets of names and scaling up when problems are solved?
• What types of systems architectures are suitable for providing access to the names of the world's biota?
• Would it be possible to initiate a collaborative effort to bring existing and developing "name server" projects into a Grid-like structure?
• Is 'biological name server' the correct title for such a resource?

Organization: Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental Sponsorship:

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