Project Leaders: Prof. Charles Godfray (Oxford Univ., Imperial Coll., Kew Trustee), Dr Malcolm Scoble (Keeper of Entomology, NHM) NERC-funded Original institutional Partners : RBG Kew, NHM, Imperial College. Major collaborators : Oxford University, Missouri Botanical Garden.
Feasibility study: web-based, consensus taxonomy for two model groups (1 plant, 1 animal) Build sites and initial content for each taxon Build software framework for on-going revision by the community Build human-institutional framework for sustaining consensual, rolling revision AIMS
Attract significant commitment from taxonomic specialists as editors, contributors and trustees of site Attract users of taxonomy (ecologists, geneticists, horticulturists, educators, etc.) Wider impact as source of authoritative taxonomic information (e.g. GBIF, educational organizations) Target communities
Providing contributors with career credit of sufficient value Building an environment in which taxonomists feel secure in contributing their data – IPR issues satisfactorily resolved Making the case for web publication being as important as paper publication Ensuring high quality of output Challenges
Sphingidae: Hawkmoths
Araceae: Aroids
Araceae Content Team: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Simon Mayo Anna Haigh Laura Reynolds Anthurium 800+ species 108 genera Philodendron 420+ species
Marcela Mora, Bogota Tom Croat (Missouri Botanical Garden) Araceae Content Team: Major international collaborators Josef Bogner (Munich Botanical Garden) Anthurium 800+ species 108 genera Philodendron 420+ species
Taxonomy in public domain: published work: revisions, monographs, new species papers, flora treatments Evaluate, filter, augment with images, edit critically Upload onto Internet Edited version of current taxonomy (not a new revision!) Updated “Consensus” taxonomy Rolling Revision Make the current taxonomy available on the Web Araceae Content Team Set up mechanism for regular/continuous update Involve taxonomic community: build an “institution” collectively Aggregate the taxonomic specialists Outputs on the Web Starting Point Content Team transforms into Editorial Team Build software Transfer software management to Kew by project end Project software hosted at Imperial Coll. and NESC Ben Clark