[Taxacom] encylopedia of life

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Richard Zander wrote:
>
> Otherwise, what? Instead of a species page, you get a choice of several pages? 

* and why not? If each taxon (or substantially distinct concept of a 
taxon) has a page, its classificatory and phylogenetic position is 
defined by the selection of "ancestor" and "descendant" links, and with 
some way of capturing support for each concept, these could reflect both 
consensus and diversity of opinion.

With a blog-like system of capturing discussion, and an indexing system 
that shuffles old arrangements into the background, such an EoL could 
both preserve taxonomic freedom and fairly present consensus systems to 
nontaxonomic users.

fred.
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            Bishops Mills Natural History Centre
Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad, Jennifer Helene Schueler
       RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
    on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
      (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca
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