In fact, it is the second rearing season the EarthCape has been deployed in Lammi Butterfly Rearing Facility. We are planning to turn this into a full case study but for now I'll try to produce several illustrative posts about it. The first one will be a short photo report from the rearing facility. All the shots in this post were taken at Lammi Biological Station in March, 2010 by the author of this post.

The project

Metapopulation biology of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitea cinxia) - this is the official title and you can get more information from the project's website and from the home page of Metapopulation Research Group.

Technical activities of the project can be divided in 3 main parts:

1. Field survey in Åland islands (EarthCape usage will be covered in future posts)
2. Larvae rearing in Lammi Biological Station facility (map)
3. Analysis and modelling back in the office
4. Sequencing and genomics work in the DNA lab

Current setup

Currently >15 lab assistants are employed at the facility. They utilize 7 netbooks running EarthCape Client connected to single database in Viikki campus in Helsinki. Database server is Microsoft SQL Server Express. It is preloaded with 1 record per larva as it is know that each M. cinxia larval nest was sampled for 3 larvae in the Fall 2009. EarthCape Reporting module was used to generate barcode labels for rearing cups and EarthCape data entry was (and continues to be) optimized for rapid data entry when the central database is on remote server.

Rearing

MRG butterfly rearing facility in Lammi Biological Station (University if Helsinki)

Greenhouse	Rearing space

Greenhouse

RFID (?) setup for butterfly flight tracking.

Pupae and pupating larvae in butterfly room.

Pupae cups and butterfly cages where feeding and matings occur.

That's it. I have also gotten some FullHD footage, so it will hopefully compose itself and a short action piece of larval rearing in the near future. I will also describe the workflow involving EarthCape in details in one of the future posts.

BHL search

Following internal experiments (described here), intense (and ongoing) discussion with Pat LaFollette (@PatLaFollette), and email/twitter exchange with BHL and UBio guys (@chrisfreeland @fak3r @anthonygoddard), EarthCape BHL search is now added to the build available for testers. It has been slightly modified from what was described before (results were stored in dedicated BHL table) to actually fit the EarthCape data model.

So what happens now? (see this document for BHL data model)

• BHL Items are imported as References.
• BHL PageName becomes NameRef (working name, not documented yet, but watch this space) .
• BHL Page is attached to both NameRef and to Reference records and a large page image is downloaded on demand.
• BHL Subject was not available via the web service call so not imported.

Couple of search options added:

• Assign results to a group/project.
• Download thumbnail images (slows down considerably).
• Autocreate names (slows a bit, if the name has NameBankID checks with UBio XML Services to get (for now) the packageName to help sort out results; perhaps BHL Subject would help here).

 WARNING: BHL service returns max 100 names per search string currently. This limitation may go away or change in the future.

Custom layout to view BHL results:

GBIF Search

There isn't much exciting at the moment with GBIF import, except that one can easily plot these on the map that is either stored in EarthCape database or loaded from external source (SHP, KML, MIF, WMS, GML, TIF and pretty much any other vector and raster format). What I will explore next regarding GBIF and mapping is on-the-fly reprojecting of GBIF data to overlay with projected maps. Same idea goes for displaying the data that is already in the database (presumably different records may be in different coordinate systems) on, say, Google Maps without going through data export and coordinate transformation step before that.

So what has just happened?

Perhaps nothing much, but things starting to look a bit like web based mashups. Although with one difference. External data is being mixed with one's own data and right inside the database with the rest of the tools ready to be used. I guess this diserves a separate blog post, so I'll hold off from more commentary until I experiment more.

This is the next item in a series of experiments with external services.

About GBIF:

What is the Global Biodiversity Information Facility?

GBIF enables free and open access to biodiversity data online. We’re an international government-initiated and funded initiative focused on making biodiversity data available to all and anyone, for scientific research, conservation and sustainable development.

I will not dive into analysis of GBIF services but rather try to think about a simple question:

Provided one can simply highlight taxonomic names, hit the button and download the results into EarthCape Units module, what this can be used for?

1. Explore what GBIF data holds on you taxa of interest
2. Explore results of the search TOGETHER with your own data
3. Plot results of the search with or without your own data on your OWN map (EarthCape can reproject the data on the fly)
4. Clean up GBIF data for own purposes but send errors back to GBIF for more checks.
5. Educational purpose: one can quickly build a database with quite diverse content (when other services are also engaged) starting with e.g. species list or selected area on the map.

What EarthCape could do for GBIF?

1. Provide data export from local databases into GBIF data format (e.g. DwC)
2. EarthCape Server could be used automatically as GBIF data provider.
3. Provide local data clean up facility for data that is already in GBIF.

These are all just thoughts and I am not even sure anything useful will develop from here. It will all depend on user feedback though. Please, give some!

Here is the catch with EarthCape: you cannot modify the underlining database structure. Well, you can but that would an undocumented hack which I will document later.

Given that, there is still a way to store data that does not fit into the predefined schema in EarthCape database: Descriptive module comes into play allowing adding Tags (with TagValues) to any object in the database:

Note that apart from "standard" TagValue types there is one that handles FileAttachments. It is still part of the experiment of making annotation system reasonably (but, potentially, overly) diverse and flexible. I will talk more about file attachments and links in later post.

What the approach above allows is to add more "data fields" to your base data (e.g. taxa, specimens) without restructuring the database. Another benefit is the potential to explicitly treat Tag assignments with audit data (who recorded, when) and to record several values for the same Tag (e.g. repeated measurements). This format is also better suited for EC Analysis module.

One problem UI related problem came up right away during field testing - it is a bit cumbersome to enter tag values, especially during rapid and high volume measurement lab experiment. User essentially has to choose from the drop down list which type of value he/she wants to create, choose the tag, fill the form, close it and repeat the process.

Currently I have introduced a shortcut that pops up a form that has list of tags that are assigned to current project. This form can be filled for several values of different types and when it is saved, all values get attached to all selected objects (e.g. specimen records).

Next step would be to bring TagValues  editing close to real table editing experience (as if those Tags are actually columns in the base data table) using pivot setup in Analysis module. At this point it is just an idea and experimenting will show if this solution is usable.

If YOU have any ideas on how to improve user experience when working with for instance character data and would like to share it, please comment on this blog or drop me a line. It would be most interesting to know what kind of setup different labs are using and what are the major bottlenecks in the area of descriptive data management.

Dialogue. Earlier today. MRG office.

- Hey, you have our Madagascar beetle data?
- yeees...
- I am going to need that file with occurrences for these genera...
- Sure! How do you want it?
- You know... in 50x50 km grid squares...(oh no!)... table with one row for each grid cell... (I knew it!)... species names in columns...(no way!)... occurrence counts per species per cell in between... by noon.
- (silence)

There are countless ways and approaches to this problem. GIS people know. They just know and that is why you go to them when you have a "question". Can we do it without them? Can it be done using our database management system?

Here I gave an example of generating print ready maps through EarthCape's built in reporting engine. In this post I briefly referred to distribution map generation in EarthCape but not necessarily in printed form, but rather within genuine GIS environment that is being built inside EC. There is no description of GIS features yet in Overview section, mainly because this is under so rapid development that any description would become outdated within weeks. So this post gives an example of using existing GIS data and outputting something useful, again, in sensible GIS format. It is a small example but it saved my day just today.

The idea is rather simple. You can import a vector file that serves as a "mask" - countries, provinces, grid cells - any polygon data (and from any GIS format). Next you highlight unit (specimen, observation) data, hit "Map" button, choose the map you want to use as background and the layer that is used for the mask and you get the map on the screen (map below is classified by species counts for certain genera).

 As requested, I needed to prepare a data file which would have presence/absence data for each species per each cell (as depicted above).

So I added some more functionality to map generation module that adds a column for each species to mask layer metadata with occurrence counts for each cell (as seen from Excel):

Of course the whole layer can be exported to any of these GIS format and used within specialized GIS tools:

- Here is your file
- Yeah. Cheers. I knew it's a 5 minute work...

 In the previous post I looked at trial implementation of BHL search in EarthCape applications. Since then, several improvoments have been added including saving search results into EC database (in fact, they are imported directly into EC database) and pivot analysis of search results via EarthCape Analysis module.

I will now briefly summarize th capabilities of conventional table that displays search results (couple of general videos here).

Simple table view and grouped view (column titles can be dragged to group header and back to groups records according to desired patter)

Sorting & filtering

Short video with this functionality:

Pivot analysis in more detail:

1. Create new analysis
2. Choose data type
3. Bind to data
4. Play with Row, Column and Data areas

Here is a quick and dirty (that's how things are in the real lab, no?) implementation of a feature that I was partly tempted to investigate for the purpose of learning, partly because it was requested by users, namely Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) integration with EarthCape taxonomic and potentially bibliographic module.

BHL provides rather useful set of tools that allow developers code access to BHL data into their applications. In this scenario I am using SOAP (don't ask!) to access BHL Name Service. Rod Page has just nicely spelled out for us the structure of BHL data so I will not go into details of it here. Example functionality is available both in EarthCape Client and EarthCape Server with the only difference that the look up in EC Server does not show dynamic image/page preview but surely at least a hyperlink to BHL page can be easily activated (not done for this demo).

Watch in high quality on YouTube

EarthCape Client example

EarthCape Server example

Now to the questions:

• Is simple browsing like this of any use to taxonomists?
• What is missing to make it more useful?
• Provided there are tools to sort out BHL metadata mess in EarthCape, how would feed back to BHL (to help with assigning articles)?
• Should search results and/or page images be saved in EarthCape database?
• Should I implement searching local copy of BHL data?

Remember that this is only an exercise, a proof of concept. If this functionality is not needed in practice in such application, it may not end up in the final release. Please, do provide the feedback or simply add more questions to the list, either by commenting on this blog, posting to EarthCape forums, Twitter, or contacting me directly.

EarthCape is currently in closed testing mode but if you you seriously want to go through all the hell of testing alfa level software - drop me a line.

This build concentrates on file attachment functionality, Audit trail accessibility, changes to taxonomy and event calendar.

Registered testers can access the installation file in Downloads section. Details in What's new section.

It is recommended that new database is created for testing purposes. In case you feel you have invested too much in building your database with previous build (which you were warned not to do) prepare to dive into manual restructuring of your data (instructions provided).

Please also note, that the user guide has merged with Overview section which has been gradually expanding (make sure you read User accounts explanation).

EarthCape Cloud is the code name for EarthCape (EC) online service that so far concentrates only on one task – keep track of user registrations.

Let us take this apart. When user creates new (local) database in EC Client he/she is prompted to enter his /her existing EC account information or create new EC account. There is more information about login procedure here.

Here is important point. When user enters existing account information when creating new database (or logging into EC database where the account doesn’t exist), EC Client connects to EC Cloud and checks it. If account exists, it is downloaded to the new database and from now on, when connecting to this database, internet connection is not required. This ensures that records created will bear the same user’s GUID in any database that user is working with.

Note that anonymous user accounts are not allowed. Also, all updates of local account information locally are pushed to the server. If account has been updated while working from one place, then it will synchronize on demand if logged on into another.

Now, let me have a small break, depart from this topic slightly,  and mention that right at this very moment Rod Page has mentioned on Twitter this post and it made me think again about this part of it:

I think the concern for local has lead to an emphasis on providing complex software to each data provider that supports operations (such as search) that don't scale (live federated search simply doesn't work), at the expense of focussing on simple solutions that are easy to use.

This is relevant to the scenario I have described. This prompted me to dig up Rod's earlier post on Scratchpads where he comments:

My worry is that in the long term this is going to create lots of silos that some poor fool will have to aggregate together to do anything synthetic with.

To which, Vince Smith responded with a great post I really appreciated. There is not much more to add to this, except to expand a little bit on this part:

Furthermore, we should actively encourage the digital publication of these data. Rod would probably agree with this but he would legitimately add that none of this precludes a Wiki - or specifically a Semantic Wiki, as the best technical solution to publishing this. Rod's post makes the point that a single Wiki prevents the creation of multiple data silo's and is a better framework to collate, annotate and synthesize biodiversity data (i.e. makes it easier to fix inaccurate data, assign and synonomise multiple identifiers etc).

He means tools. Sophisticated taxonomic tools. Scratchpads (and EarthCape for that matter) are designed handle the tiny details, do the hard and dirty work being the right instrument for the job. As I already commented in my "inauguration" TAXACOM post.

My vision of ideal taxonomic tool is the one that streamlined for typical tasks taxonomist going through, including databasing, management, querying, mapping, publishing, etc. but which can make use of those standards to connect to existing databases (all those mentioned above, for instance) and pull the data into local database (ideally also push the data back, or simply "sync with a cloud"). A "local-cloud" hybrid.

In Rod's To wiki or not to wiki? post Roger Hyam commented:

How about browser extensions that make working with wikipedia to do taxonomic descriptions more efficient and increase data integrity.

This is already closer to my heart. In this post I don't want to get into my issues with wiki. I would simply emphasize that wiki platform can be too flexible on one hand (e.g. for things that should not be done) and on the other hand to stiff to allow data complexity behind taxonomic work that is required for the system to be scientifically robust.

Right, where was I? What does this have to do with EarthCape and EarthCape Cloud project in particular?

Rod's post on "distributed vs centralized" is touched the subject I wanted to bring up. How much functionality will be on EarthCape Cloud. This far it is not much but it is important for EarthCape overall design to function. What is next? Projects will be registered as well. Why? because this would be essential for keep data sharing and track memberships for projects that span organizations. Will there be names registry? Which names? Taxonomic only? How would it fit with architectures that are being built (GNA/GNI/GNUB)? What kind of front end will it be - wiki based or more traditional database management system (prototype of this one exists)?

I admit there are more questions than answers at the moment. The plan is to create something that will serve EarthCape applications and users in a best possible way by integrating, where possible, with global initiatives. With Wikipedia? EOL? Wikispecies? GBIF? These are platforms where "it all comes together". EarthCape ideally should be ready to support all of these so that users are sure that their data is not locked and easily publishable on chosen target platform.

Coming back to some answers that I do have at this point about EarthCape Cloud:

• it is currently registering users
• it will register projects in the near future
• it does not have public facing front end (it exists but not accessible for public)
• it will probably register taxonomic names but it is uncertain it should be obligatory
• it may register names usage

Ok, this looks enough for Friday night blogging. Looking through it, it is more of an assemblage of random thoughts, but this is the point - that is how things are at the moment. EarthCape Cloud service is not appearing on the list of our products until those thoughts are in some order and the goal is clear (as well as the road ahead).

I will blog more about EarthCape platform architecture closer to the end of this year. Beta testers though, will have early access to experimental integration of EarthCape Client and EarthCape Server with their Cloud sibling.

In fact, two newsletters are created - one for testers and one general.

Some of you have registered at earthcape.com before EarthCape newsletter was added to the system. I decided not to add users automatically but you can sign up if you login to your account:

http://www.earthcape.com/Secure/UserProfile.aspx

Also, you remember that you can keep track on what's happening via this blog (slightly "higher resolution" updates than newsletter)
http://www.earthcape.com/blog.aspx
rss: http://www.earthcape.com/blog1rss.aspx

or Twitter (very fine scale feed)
http://www.twitter.com/emeyke

This has been a great effort and experience. I would like to thank all people that supported the project and still do. 

Remember that if you have an active database that you would like to port to EarthCape, you will get help to do it, either in a form of automatic conversion and full instructions on manual steps. This will come later when EarthCape core stabilizes. Watch this space for more information.

TAXIS users will be asked (via newsletter) to register at earthcape.com web site. TAXIS files are available for download after registration (free).

Commercial licenses of TAXIS are not available anymore and unlocking keys are provided in download section.

TAXIS web site is still online (www.bio-tools.net). It is kept online primarily for support of existing projects.

Well, this is it. EarthCape's online home is up and running. It is far from being complete and i will be adding much content over the next few months so watch this space.

I am migrating EarthCape blog to a new address so please update you bookmarks and news readers.

Blog: http://www.earthcape.com/blog.aspx

RSS: http://www.earthcape.com/blog1rss.aspx

Several days ago I sent out “early testing” invitations to Taxis users. Already now we have a strong team of bravest of those putting EarthCape through its paces. Some even ignoring warnings against using it for real and actually deploying it. Some good feedback is already coming through.

With the current setup I am issuing builds roughly once a 2 weeks or immediately of a critical bug is discovered. Online bug tracking system available to trackers allows keeping track of issues that are already fixed and coming in the next build or reporting new issues.

I realize though that July is a slow period and we’ll see how we are doing in the fall. if adopted testing procedures keep working well and testers are feeling more confident it will be time to consider releasing a public Beta.

[UPDATE 25.08.2009]

Information and the progress of current build is available for testes here. I was a bit too optimistic about "every two weeks" builds.

Species Richness map from units (Windows)

This example uses preloaded "mask" layer (loaded from shape file) to create "species richness" map. Built in GIS routines allows various classifications to be made and vector data (species, locality, occurrence counts per grid cell) be exported to any GIS format.

Taxonomic List

Named lists can be created to freely group taxa for later reuse. This example also shows how to display all unit records for selected taxa.

Report Designer & Mapping (Windows)

This example demonstrates how to create simple report that includes distribution map for each species

Application Model Editor (Windows)

Powerful model editor for EarthCape windows client allows changing almost every aspect of application interface and functionality, as well as introduce new elements and translate UI to other languages

Grid Features (Windows)

Brief demo of general grid features, such as grouping, columns customization, sorting, filtering, summaries

I have just set up YouTube Channel where I’ll be posting screencasts demonstrating EarthCape Server and Client application features. Many of them (such as these two currently uploaded) will be focusing on very specific functionality mostly to help people currently involved in testing.

Check out latest (and I’d say greatest) stuff from friends over at Vizzuality and UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre - The World Database on Marine Protected Areas. This is an excellent example of how to make most use of modern technology and infrastructure. RIA, mashups, cloud computing, spatial database – all the buzzwords are there. And that’s only a beginning. Knowing their background, I say - stay tuned for more.

From UNEP-WCMC web site:

This marine protected areas tool (www.wdpa-marine.org), created by the United Nations Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), is part of the recently redeveloped World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) - the authoritative and most globally comprehensive list of marine and terrestrial protected areas.

This new system allows users to view information on marine protected areas in their web browser, to visualise them in Google Earth, to download data, to bring together other important data like species and ecosystem information into the same portal and more.

 

Perhaps I shouldn't say live as it is not public but it is up and running. If you are a member of MRG you can login at http://www.earthcape.com/mrg. At the moment it is housing the data from two projects which are at the core of current research conducted in MRG and unfortunately cannot be made public. This is very common situation and I am looking into ways to make at least some parts of the database available to public using EarthCape controlled sharing capabilities.

Projects mentioned:

Metapopulation biology of the Glanville fritillary butterfly
Adaptive radiation and evolutionary biology of dung beetles in Madagascar

Screenshots:

This week, I was told we need a PDF with the distribution maps for all dung beetle species from Madagascar in our database. It was needed for a meeting where next steps in field and lab work would be discussed and species distributions would be compared. As Madagascar project data has just been migrated to EarthCape, creating these has been quite easy and I thought I’d share the process as a real life example. Note that in this case I am not fiddling with the source code but merely being an end-user of EarthCape.

I had a copy of the database running locally on SQL Server Express and I used EarthCape Windows client for map generation. Base map with Madagascar country and province borders has been already loaded into the database from ArcView shape file (and stored as WKT) and observation/specimen records are georeferenced for the most part.

EarthCape windows client uses powerful reporting engine with a visual designer (EarthCape web server lacks visual designer but it is able to generate reports that have been designed in windows client and saved to the database). I’ll spend more time on both reporting and GIS features in later posts and here i will just go through the steps that took me to that final PDF.

Step 1. Create new report

I opened EarthCape windows, logged on to the database and set Madagascar Dung Beetles project as current. By doing this I am forcing a map object assigned to the project as a “default map” to be used as a base map for all generated maps. I create new report and set report name and data type, which brings up an empty report designer window:

Step 2. Report design

I add two objects to the detail band of the report (the one that will display per record data): map and chart, and set multi-column property to 3 columns.

Map object works automatically: it plots all unit records for each Taxonomic Name record on the base map assigned to the project. I should perhaps add a possibility to optionally assign a map for the report, which will override project level setting.

The chart object needs customization so I go to chart wizard and choose the chart type, assign x and y axes to Unit.Altitude1 and Unit.Quantity fields so that it gives an idea of altitudinal distribution of a species and the amount of samples.

I also add a Label object above the map and set its source to Unit.TaxonomicName property.

Save and close.

Step 3.  Execute report

So, now after this report is saved to the database, other users can “execute” (or “generate”) it, or redesign it, depending on their permissions, and get the resulting preview.

From here, it can be saved or emailed in variety of formats or printed directly.

That’s it.

I’ll just add that, although, reporting module is quite ready, GIS integration is quite basic with not much (if at any) end-user customization available. GIS module though has a high priority and expect it to take central role in EarthCape functionality.

Image via Wikipedia

Let’s look at the very “back end” of EarthCape structure, data storage.

• Advantage Database Server
• IBM DB2
• Microsoft Access
• Microsoft SQL Server Compact
• Microsoft SQL Server
• Microsoft SQL Server Express
• MySQL
• Oracle
• Pervasive PSQL
• PostgreSQL
• SQL Anywhere
• Sybase Adaptive Server
• VistaDB 3

So these are the databases EarthCape can connect to. Locally or remotely  - depends on particular database. MS Access is not supported due to limitations imposed on its capabilities by MS.

Even without MS Access, this list, i think, can satisfy quite diverse groups of users. From large institutions are often holding licenses for the giants of commercial database world, such as Oracle and Microsoft, to private users who are free to choose, such as MySQL or Postgre, golden standards in biodiversity IT.

If EarthCape windows client is used, it can either connect to a database installed on the same computer or on a remote database on  server run by IT department, in which case one would need to get required connection and login information from the database administrator.

As EarthCape also supports “disconnected” scenario, it is possible to have a local database (e. g. Postgre or MS SQL Server Compact) which allows one to work “offline” and when needed (or, automatically, when connected to the wire) synchronize with project’s/institutional database (for instance Oracle or DB2).

EarthCape web server is geared towards being installed on institutional server to provide “online” access for workers and server the data to the outside world if desired (I hope so!). Alternatively, for security or other reasons, public and internal servers can be separated and parts of the data ready for public access can be pushed from one to the other, and at the same time retrieving public feedback (say, in the form of comments or identifications) back to the inside.

I will blog more about different scenarios and capabilities at later time.

I have put together a quick diagram illustrating main points of EarthCape architecture. Please note that items may vary in their development status which is not reflected here.

Storage – supported database backends;
Data – schematic representation of EarthCape data modules;
Features – overview of functional modules;
Platforms – supported user interface platforms and web services;

So what is EarthCape? In short, it is a database management software for biodiversity data. Well, you are right – nothing new here, there is a number of those available. I will not go into detailed comparison of all existing tools, but rather outline main points about EarthCape. More detailed posts on each of these to follow.

• User interface: Windows and Web
• Database backend: 11 database engines supported (incl. MySql, PostgreSQL, MS SQL, Oracle, Firebird)
• Elaborate data model (biodiversity related modules, project management, and more)
• Built-in powerful GIS engine, printing system, and report designer
• Pivot data analysis
• Lab routines management
• Museum loan handling
• Genetic data modules
• Collaborative approach to database creation
• Multi user security system
• Data sharing and publication

Here are some screen shots.

Windows client:

I will blog more about platforms (both database and UI) but in case this windows/web thing sounded confusing, here is a brief explanation.

Client application installs on the computer and most of the processing happens on that computer and often data is stored locally as well. In this case, EarthCape client is Windows only. For now.

Web application is a piece of software that is installed on a web server and typically accessed via web browser. It can be made either publically accessible from the internet, accessible to selected users and groups through the internet, or closed for intranet use only.

Both types of applications serve the data from chosen database, which can be either located on the same computer, or on dedicated database server machine.

The will also be a set of web services that will communicate between EarthCape servers, EarthCape servers and clients and with outside world of machines (ran by humans, of course).

A quick note on EarthCape availability plans.

At the moment, a Windows client prototype is being deployed for couple of projects in  Metapopulation Research Group (MRG) in a very controlled environment, where I can fix and re-write things “on the go”. I will blog about this experience in summer, hopefully. I am also preparing a CTP release in May this year but no promises.

EarthCape server MRG installation is also running but it has no public access. When EarthCape Client is ready for public test I will open access to either a demo installation of EC server with some sample data, OR I will open limited access to main EarthCape server, lets call it EarthCape Cloud for the moment – more on names in future posts, which can be used together with your local setup.

There are no concrete plans on a more stable beta release, except that it would be “nice” to have it around September 2009.

Rod Page gave a talk titled "Going Digital" at NHM, London and Vince Smith has a great summary of it.

Slides and video are available. Also, don't forget to check this discussion on Nature Network.

It is of course an obligatory talk to listen to and there has been plenty of commentary around. I am just going to fast forward to minute 71 where Rod Page is asked about moving into this "post taxonomic era": "...So, if it all there... why hasn't it happened?" Watch it, you'll find out what he answered. I am not sure if it is all there, though. I don't have a complete answer but I have a vague suspicion that some of the essential parts like software tools are pretty much missing. If not missing, then lacking. I'll try to dive into this subject in some later posts.