Open Taxonomy again
26-06-2009 20:12
Continuing my earlier post of
restructuring
taxonomy.
On the Google discussion group on Open Taxonomy Projects, Bob Mesidov posted today an outline of tasks suitable for involving non-experts. His draft is here; be sure to read also this.
Excellent draft indeed. We might have to realize, however, that these tasks are aimed (IMHO) at the high-end of the potential target group, i.e. those people who already have a keen interest in 'taxonomy' and biology (although they might not realize it or might call it differently).
In my view, there could be at least two other groups that have potential as targets, albeit they will have to be approached in a different way.
a. People with a special interests and skills in one of the tasks but without a keen or proven interest in biology. They need to be either stimulated to link their skills to biological specimens or the biology component need to be 'wrapped' in such way that recognize it as something reasonable to do.
An example: Someone who has as hobby Photoshopping pictures, could do polishing some biological pictures from time to time when presented in the right context.
b. Ordinary people without any interest in biology, but offered some special tasks in the context of e.g. a game; also the example of Captcha could be such a context.
Examples: proofreading using Captcha, landmarking images using a game.
If so have any feelings about this topic, let me know via the comments or by becoming a member of the Google group.
Update: an outline of the workflow can be found here.
On the Google discussion group on Open Taxonomy Projects, Bob Mesidov posted today an outline of tasks suitable for involving non-experts. His draft is here; be sure to read also this.
Excellent draft indeed. We might have to realize, however, that these tasks are aimed (IMHO) at the high-end of the potential target group, i.e. those people who already have a keen interest in 'taxonomy' and biology (although they might not realize it or might call it differently).
In my view, there could be at least two other groups that have potential as targets, albeit they will have to be approached in a different way.
a. People with a special interests and skills in one of the tasks but without a keen or proven interest in biology. They need to be either stimulated to link their skills to biological specimens or the biology component need to be 'wrapped' in such way that recognize it as something reasonable to do.
An example: Someone who has as hobby Photoshopping pictures, could do polishing some biological pictures from time to time when presented in the right context.
b. Ordinary people without any interest in biology, but offered some special tasks in the context of e.g. a game; also the example of Captcha could be such a context.
Examples: proofreading using Captcha, landmarking images using a game.
If so have any feelings about this topic, let me know via the comments or by becoming a member of the Google group.
Update: an outline of the workflow can be found here.