Architecture for Electronic Field Guides Robert A. Morris Robert D. Stevenson UMASS-Boston

Electronic Field Guides Why are we interested in semantic processing What do we do now

Semantically based discovery 1.In what semantic categories does the provider metadata place the provider data? 2.In what semantic categories does the application place the query subject? 3.To what semantic categories does processing the ontology expand 1 and 2 and thereby inform the application which providers to query?

A discovery scenario What is the scientific name of the flower whose common name is Alpine Lily? Issues –What is a scientific name? –What is a flower? –What is a common name? –What is a lily? –What is an Alpine Lily? –What is an alpine lily? –Who says so?

Alpine Lily is Lilium parvum –CalFlora, CalAcademy – –enature.com (also: Fairy Lily, Sierran Tiger Lily) –("Sierra Tiger Lily" in USDA Plants hence ITIS hence GBIF COL) Lloydia serotina – USDA Plants hence ITIS hence GBIF COL – Gresham(OR) School Steen Mountain Checklist (1995) –("Alp lily" at

Alpine Lily Lilium parvum © 2000 John Game From CalFlora Lloydia serotina ©? Betty Ford Alpine Garden

Concepts vary ConceptTaxonomist means Field naturalist means Novice means Scientific NameICZN, ICBN, … A latin name Common NameNALocal usageWhatever field guides say it is FlowerPart of an angiosperm Part of an angiosperm or an angiosperm A flowering plant or part of a flowering plant LilySpecies in Liliaceae family Species in Lily family Alpine LilyNALloydia serotina; Lilium parvium Lloydia serotina; Lilium parvium alpine lilyNALily that grows in an alpine setting ???

Simple novice semantic web AnimalPlant FlowerMammal Taxon is-a is-a, deduced by rule CalFlora USDA Plants MSW ITIS serves

Where to find prototype –Work of Hui Dong –Select "Integrated Scientific Name Service" Generally:

Goals of the EFG Project ID and descriptive data services on the web No assumptions about structure of characters or character states Biologist should be free of informatics professionals Participate in federations of (biodiversity, neuroscience,...) data sources

Query Engine Servlet Presentation Layer XSLT Engine (Xalan) Back End (OStore) http GET xml internet java query formulation POST JDOM html, specialized XML,... servlet forwarding Architecture of a UMASS Boston Electronic Field Guide

EFG Web Services Provide –descriptive pages Idiosyncratic but simple schema TDWG SDD Schema (alpha.01...) –Interactive and machine mediated remote or local identification tools –Metadata (Darwin Core?) –Georeferenced checklists (collaboratively with digital gazetteers (ADL DG) –recording of field observations

EFG Web Services Query schema –cgi prop1=value1&prop2=value2.. –regular expressions (more or less) on prop=value atoms –digIR (TDWG Access to Biological Collections Data, Initial protocol for GBIF Electronic Catalog of Names). Designed generally but implemented for specimen collections data applications.

EFG plans and projects Elaborate on multimedia keys Semantic discovery K12 field Guide Production Trusted access control, filtering, and integration, e.g. protect geolocations of endangered species Ontology of invasive species, especially geographically based (cf. gazetteers) Integrated common/scientific name services

Hermathena oweni Schaus (Riodinidae) © 2000 William Haber from UMB EFG Project