Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 09:07:46 -0800
To: Scott Miller <smiller@icipe.org>, pick@pick.uga.edu (John Pickering),
        sackley@compuserve.com, ashe@falcon.cc.ukans.edu,
        ksem@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu, brianb@mizar.usc.edu,
        colwell@uconnvm.uconn.edu, Gladys_Cotter@usgs.gov,
        christine.deal@intermec.com, faulzeitler@ascoll.org,
        mark_fornwall@usgs.gov, Furth.David@NMNH.SI.EDU,
        whallwac@sas.upenn.edu, djanzen@sas.upenn.edu, Johnson.2@osu.edu,
        mkaspari@ou.edu, longinoj@elwha.evergreen.edu,
        scottm@bishop.bishop.hawaii.org, becky_nichols@nps.gov,
        Chuck_Parker@nps.gov, msharkey@byron.ca.uky.edu, ctemple@intermec.com,
        cthompso@sel.barc.usda.gov, jugalde@inbio.ac.cr,
        pin93001@uconnvm.uconn.edu, windsord@tivoli.si.edu, dl@pick.uga.edu,
        idg@nhm.ac.uk, KPerry@intermec.com, mzumbado@inbio.ac.cr
From: "John T. Longino" <longinoj@evergreen.edu>
Subject: Re: Survey for web registry of unique identifiers

Scott's ideas about international organizations and the expansion 
beyond entomology is great, but I also support Pick's establishing a 
web site now with the beginnings of a list, even if provisional. Even 
just a plain alphabetical list of acronyms and projects (there aren't 
THAT many) would get the ball rolling, give people a place to go 
right now, and provide the grist for later incorporation into more 
inclusive systems. If we aren't careful, this process can be like 
stalling before buying a new computer, waiting for the next newest 
thing. You never get a computer. So I definitely laud Pick's 
soliciting real data right now.

At 10:16 PM +0300 7/29/99, Scott Miller wrote:
>Pick: Thank you for continuing to push this subject forward.  A few
>thoughts and then some data.  ASC would be a good coordinating body (if
>they desired) for North America, but I believe their official mandate
>really only covers the USA, Canada, and Mexico, so they would not
>necessarily be a suitable international repository.  BRD, being a
>government agency serving the USA, would be even more narrow.  On the other
>hand there are two nascent, although yet poorly defined organisations that
>will evolve over the next year or so: the Global Taxonomy Initiative (GTI)
>of the CBD and GBIF of OECD (see recent press releases).  At least from the
>entomological perspective, this would be an excellent topic for discussion
>at the next meeting of the directors of Major Systematic Entomology
>Facilities in November.

******************************************************
John T. Longino
Lab I, The Evergreen State College
Olympia WA 98505 USA
longinoj@evergreen.edu
Ants of Costa Rica on the Web at http://www.evergreen.edu/ants
Project ALAS at http://viceroy.eeb.uconn.edu/ALAS/ALAS.html
******************************************************

Discover Life in America | Science | Unique Identifiers & Barcodes | Correspondence | John Longino - 30 July, 1999