[Wikipedia-l] Developers needed!

Tue Aug 24 17:12:16 UTC 2004

Daniel Mayer wrote:

>--- Lars Aronsson <lars at aronsson.se> wrote:
>  
>
>>Daniel Mayer wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>>Looks essentially what a wikispecies should look like, I guess.  I guess
>>>>        
>>>>
>>a
>>    
>>
>>>>w-species would focus more on the biology, history, genealogy, genetics,
>>>>        
>>>>
>>or
>>    
>>
>>>>what, so that it's different from the w-pedia?  
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>All that should be covered in the Wikipedia article. 
>>>      
>>>
>>My impression is that Wikispecies' goal is to catalog *every* existing
>>(and extinct?) species.  We're talking about, what, hundred thousands
>>of articles.  This is similar to documenting every town and village,
>>no matter what the size, and such attempts have historically not been
>>appreciated within Wikipedia.  This is why I think Wikispecies should 
>>be developed separately.
>>    
>>
>
>A great many species will only be covered at the genus level since there isn't
>much known about them individually. This is not a problem. 
>
>The overlap between this proposed project and Wikipedia is simply too great and
>will thus harm our coverage of taxa and species by dividing that aspect between
>two different projects. 
>
>-- mav
>
>
>		
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>  
>
Mav,

What is this overlap? Given that ToL only covers the most recent names 
and loads of names have been validly published and still have relevance, 
I fail to see where the overlap is. You presume that little is known 
about many species, when there is traction among the serious amateurs 
and the professionals, you will be amazed how much is known about things 
on a species, subspecies, variety and forma level.

The scientific descriptions of taxons are inherently public domain, 
there is no single resource that collects them. I know of a Yahoo group 
that has some descriptions on line for cacti. There are more of these 
small resources. By having an open place where these things can be 
posted with some assurance that they will remain there, you already have 
something that adds value beyond the current ToL and gives validation to 
the idea of a Wikispecies.

Please start thinking, you will see that there is more to life than the ToL.

Thanks,
  GerardM