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<blockquote
cite="mid:1350f7a40907090229q4f27beaak757faae976770bb3@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">Jacek Konieczny wrote: <br>
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<div class="im">On Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 05:42:25PM +0100, Jack
Stringer wrote:<br>
> My rule of thumb would of be label it in english rather that local
name.<br>
> But that's because I am english. Using latin would put some people
off<br>
> from tagging Zoos.<br>
<br>
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But precise latin specie name is a universal identifier (rather than<br>
a „human readable” name), which can be easily translated to local names<br>
by automated means. For some species, I guess, there will be no English<br>
name, but there may be a local name. And Latin name will always be<br>
defined.</blockquote>
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</blockquote>
As I'm presently working on a semantic application which includes bird
catalogs, I can say that things aren't so easy (but aren't much
harder). While the idea of using the latin name (a.k.a. binomial name)
is a good idea (much better than localized names, that often are
ambiguous), there isn't a "universal" catalog of names (my experience
is limited to birds, but I expect my point is valid for other animals
too). Instead there is a number of different taxonomies around, even
though some are more commonly used than others (e.g. Clements for
birds); probably the most complex point is that names don't stay the
same in time, as taxonomies are constantly evolved and maintained;
sometimes a single species name changes, sometimes the genus name
changes, sometimes two different species are grouped into a single one,
sometimes what is considered a single species with "variants" is split
in multiple species.<br>
<br>
Thus, a good way to represent a species name would be a triple:
"taxonomy name", "taxonomy year", "binomial name". Eg.<br>
<br>
"Clements", "2008", "Larus canus"<br>
<br>
would represent the "Mew gull" (not sure it's called "Common gull"
throughout the whole world, BTW). This should be enough, and would make
possible to specialized applications (such as mine) to find the
semantic equivalence with other taxonomies, localized names and so on.<br>
<br>
While this might sound picky, in the Semantic Web perspective it is
important to be picky. <br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager
Tidalwave s.a.s. - "We make Java work. Everywhere."
weblogs.java.net/blog/fabriziogiudici - <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.tidalwave.it/blog">www.tidalwave.it/blog</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Fabrizio.Giudici@tidalwave.it">Fabrizio.Giudici@tidalwave.it</a> - mobile: +39 348.150.6941
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