On 03/03/2011 16:30, Tom Chance wrote:
That's elegant from a logical and maintenance point of view, but adds
hurdles for the data user.
For example, it would mean you couldn't just download OSM data and
stick it into OpenLayers for the public like so:
http://tomchance.dev.openstreetmap.org/trees.html
A data user would need the skills to use the reference source to add
that into the interface or merged dataset. By comparison, the
experienced data maintainer could simply use JOSM and XAPI (if it
actually worked these days) to fix the error quite easily.
I'm not sure this solution of adding the genus+species+common
name+produce data to every tree is Quite Right, but in my view it's
preferable as a botanical name isn't very meaningful to the average
data user.
Tom
--
http://tom.acrewoods.net http://twitter.com/tom_chance
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I must completely agree with Tom on this. (When has OSM cared about 3NF?).
Anyone who has used an old list of moths or butterflies has to spend an
age working out what the current scientific name is, whereas if the list
had been of the form Red Admiral /Vanessa atalanta /it would have been
easy. Scientific names change more frequently than common ones, although
even a common bird like /Prunella modularis/ may be known as Hedge
Sparrow, Dunnock or Hedge Accentor. Plants may be a bit less susceptible
to wholescale taxonomic change than animals and fungi, but it happens
nonetheless (see wikipedia on the London Plane
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platanus_%C3%97_acerifolia>), and you may
be surprised to learn that German botanists don't recognise the Crack
Willow designation of British botanists.
Secondly it is important that people can contribute what they know about
a tree, so provision for adding a tree just with a common name is useful.
My third point is that I would be hesitant about using wikipedia for
plant names (e.g., /Tilia platyphyllos/ is pretty much known in UK as
Large-leaved Lime). My first choice would be the Botanical Society of
the British Isles plant list, available on their website, or that on the
Wild Flower Societies webpage
<http://www.thewildflowersociety.com/wfs_list_of_all_plants/guide_to_pages.htm>.
The Encylopedia of Life <http://www.eol.org/> is probably a better
source than Wikipedia for plants not covered by the first two lists.
Other sources for latin names are Flora Europaea
<http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/FE/fe.html>, possibly the Web of Life, and
in desperation IPNI <http://www.ipni.org/>. I've added a few names to
the list, but have left row 383 well alone.
Jerry
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