Biological Collection Data Standard - Request for Comment

[Walter Berendsohn]

- Please excuse crossposting of this message -

Request for Comment

Dear Colleague,

The Access to Biological Collections Data (ABCD) Task Group is developing
an XML Schema as a data interchange standard for unit-level data. A unit
may be a specimen, culture, living organism, or observation of an organism.

The standard, intended for use in distributed query systems for unit-level
databases, has reached a degree of development where the Group welcomes
comments and suggestions from the wider community. The current draft of the
schema, labelled CTB version 1.39, can be found at the Content Subgroup's
Web-site at  http://www.bgbm.org/TDWG/CODATA/Schema/ along with further
information about the project and the group itself.

The profile is available as a .xsd file or as a very large HTML file with
diagrams to show the structure. I may also be viewed through a special
browser-based schema viewer.

The Schema is intended to provide a comprehensive basic structure and is
consequently quite large and highly structured. It will be used as the
standard format in which the results of a distributed query will be
returned.

The Group seeks comments on the adequacy of the element set and the
definition of the element's semantics ("documentation"). We would
particularly value comments on where the element count may be reduced,
rather than enlarged, without impairing its function.

Please would you take a look at the current draft, and send comments and
suggestions to abcd at bgbm.org by the December 3, 2002.

For the ABCD Standard Editors Group
J. Croft, N. Thomson, and W. Berendsohn