Restructuring taxonomy
12-06-2009 20:47
Last weeks there has been a discussion on the
Taxocom-list which mainly houses professional
taxonomists. Bob Mesidov was one of the people who
stressed that taxonomists are on the loosing end of
the battle for money, attention and the influx of
young people. See also
this
in the recent issue of The Scientist. “The best we
can hope for is the replace of dead and dropped-out
experts”, Mesibov said. First there was the
biodiversity crisis, now the taxonomy crisis...
The search for solutions has started and the main direction is clear. Online, online, online whatever can be done that way. Are there any inspirational examples perhaps?
Yes, there is one in an unrelated field like astronomy, Clickworkers. Imagine you would have a similar tool for any taxonomic group, identifying patterns of characters in images stored at a database.
Or look at this amazing project, Recapcha, proving that you don’t have to rely on a single participant’s biases.
The closest example of a participation of non-experts in taxonomy is the Collembola site, where many of the images were provided by amateurs.
The ultimate example would be a ‘taxonomy game’ where the players from all over the world got playfully help to contribute to taxonomic work (and perhaps have some interesting time as well seeing the diversity of life). As far as we know, such game doesn’t exist yet.
The common denominator is Open Taxonomy Projects.
The aim is to restructure the work done by biological taxonomists so that anyone, anywhere can contribute to a taxonomic project via the Web.
From the FAQ of this group:
Isn't the job nearly finished? Aren't most species known and classified?
That might be true for birds and mammals and tall trees, and for certain animal and plant groups of economic or medical importance. The rest of the living world is still largely unknown. A recent estimate is 8-9 million species in total on Earth. Taxonomists have so far named and described fewer than 2 million. Most of the undescribed species are small, rare or both.
Why invite non-specialists to help do taxonomy?
Because there aren't enough professional taxonomists in the world, and their numbers are decreasing. Despite this decline, taxonomic knowledge is still fundamentally important in medicine, farming, forestry, fishing, land management and conservation. Taxonomic work is also urgently needed to learn about species headed for extinction in disappearing habitats.
Isn't taxonomy too hard for ordinary people? Don't you need a university degree and special training?
You need special training and experience to become a professional taxonomist. You don't need either to do many of the basic tasks in taxonomy, like documenting and comparing specimens. Open taxonomy projects will sharpen your skills with online games and training.
How are open taxonomy projects going to work? Isn't there a risk that the results won't be as good as taxonomy done by professionals?
Open taxonomy projects will be structured and managed by professional taxonomists in the same way that open-source software is developed. There will be sub-tasks, sub-task maintainers, milestones, version checking and strict adherence to all the rules of formal taxonomy and taxonomic publishing. The difference will be in the results. More specimens will be identified and more species described in less time with more people involved and with better quality control.
Isn't a lot happening these days with digital tools to make taxonomy more efficient? Can't you get increased taxonomic output that way?
There are a lot of new 'cybertaxonomy' tools. What they do is speed up some steps in the taxonomic process, like checking the scientific literature and generating identification keys. Other steps remain slow because they have to be done by humans, not computers. This slower work includes collecting and documenting specimens, comparing specimens, looking for specimen characters to assist identification and classification, testing the usefulness of those characters, etc. Overall, taxonomic output is limited by the slowest steps in the taxonomic workflow. Open taxonomic projects will speed up those slower steps by linking busy, isolated specialists with online volunteer communities that are active 24/7.
If you are interested in this topic, don’t hesitate and participate!
The search for solutions has started and the main direction is clear. Online, online, online whatever can be done that way. Are there any inspirational examples perhaps?
Yes, there is one in an unrelated field like astronomy, Clickworkers. Imagine you would have a similar tool for any taxonomic group, identifying patterns of characters in images stored at a database.
Or look at this amazing project, Recapcha, proving that you don’t have to rely on a single participant’s biases.
The closest example of a participation of non-experts in taxonomy is the Collembola site, where many of the images were provided by amateurs.
The ultimate example would be a ‘taxonomy game’ where the players from all over the world got playfully help to contribute to taxonomic work (and perhaps have some interesting time as well seeing the diversity of life). As far as we know, such game doesn’t exist yet.
The common denominator is Open Taxonomy Projects.
The aim is to restructure the work done by biological taxonomists so that anyone, anywhere can contribute to a taxonomic project via the Web.
From the FAQ of this group:
Isn't the job nearly finished? Aren't most species known and classified?
That might be true for birds and mammals and tall trees, and for certain animal and plant groups of economic or medical importance. The rest of the living world is still largely unknown. A recent estimate is 8-9 million species in total on Earth. Taxonomists have so far named and described fewer than 2 million. Most of the undescribed species are small, rare or both.
Why invite non-specialists to help do taxonomy?
Because there aren't enough professional taxonomists in the world, and their numbers are decreasing. Despite this decline, taxonomic knowledge is still fundamentally important in medicine, farming, forestry, fishing, land management and conservation. Taxonomic work is also urgently needed to learn about species headed for extinction in disappearing habitats.
Isn't taxonomy too hard for ordinary people? Don't you need a university degree and special training?
You need special training and experience to become a professional taxonomist. You don't need either to do many of the basic tasks in taxonomy, like documenting and comparing specimens. Open taxonomy projects will sharpen your skills with online games and training.
How are open taxonomy projects going to work? Isn't there a risk that the results won't be as good as taxonomy done by professionals?
Open taxonomy projects will be structured and managed by professional taxonomists in the same way that open-source software is developed. There will be sub-tasks, sub-task maintainers, milestones, version checking and strict adherence to all the rules of formal taxonomy and taxonomic publishing. The difference will be in the results. More specimens will be identified and more species described in less time with more people involved and with better quality control.
Isn't a lot happening these days with digital tools to make taxonomy more efficient? Can't you get increased taxonomic output that way?
There are a lot of new 'cybertaxonomy' tools. What they do is speed up some steps in the taxonomic process, like checking the scientific literature and generating identification keys. Other steps remain slow because they have to be done by humans, not computers. This slower work includes collecting and documenting specimens, comparing specimens, looking for specimen characters to assist identification and classification, testing the usefulness of those characters, etc. Overall, taxonomic output is limited by the slowest steps in the taxonomic workflow. Open taxonomic projects will speed up those slower steps by linking busy, isolated specialists with online volunteer communities that are active 24/7.
If you are interested in this topic, don’t hesitate and participate!