Thank you very much for your reply Benedikt.
Hopefully most of the issues are getting in the open now.
If, by some dint of magic, I were left in charge of deciding whether wikispecies became a wikimedia project, here are the things I would want to see/know about. (Some of this is just a collection of other comments in this thread)
1) A review of similar projects on the web. Particularly: -- ITIS is a US government database - is it public domain. Would it be usable? -- What happened to the data from the crippled allspecies project? Could it be released and used? -- Tolweb? Who is behind it? How are they doing? Would they welcome co-operation?
2) Funding. A db devoted to species is much more likely to be eligible for certain funding than a general project. E.g. tolweb is basically funded by NSF grants (http://tolweb.org/tree/home.pages/funding.html). Could/should wikispecies take advantage in a way that wikipedia hasn't/can't?
3) Target audience. The target audience should be scientists and the information contained should be scientific. This will attract scientists to the project. Otherwise it overlaps with the current WP project too much.
4) A commitment to develop the WikiDB module as mentioned by Tim Starling. I don't think using plain MediaWiki would be good enough for wikispecies - implementing in terms of categories and templates would be a bit hackish for the purposes required. A proper db would reduce the overlap with WPToL.
5) A commitment that the information would be GDFL compatible.
6) There should be a defined mechanism for importing wikispecies information into wikipedia. I envisage the current ToL taxoboxes being currently replaced with information imported from wikispecies using some sort of filter. Alongside this import would sit a more waffly description of the species and less scientific-relevant information. The import process should be automated as possible, and preferably entirely automatic and in real-time (though this would require an extension to the MW software). This import should be designed to work with non-English Wikipedias as far as is possible. It would not be acceptable to just have links to Wikispecies. It must be more integrated to avoid duplication of effort.
But, I'm not in charge, so the above is nothing more than just my thoughts
Pete/Pcb21
Benedikt Mandl wrote:
Would the new project be GFDL? Would it be easy to transfer contents to/from Wikipedia? How would we ensure that effort is not duplicated between the two projects? Do you have suggestions for improvements to the ToL project?
I understand that the information collected by the ToL project will indeed overlap to a big extent with the wikispecies directory, but that might turn out as an advantage rather than a disadvantage. As you said, the ToL presents information in a prosaic way as it is suitable for an encyclopedia. If wikispecies should become a reference for all users (including scientists), however, there are some points you need to consider:
1.) A clear sturcture as the one presented previously would be crucial for a specific (mind the play on words - specific) search; and that is imortant to attract professional users
2.) The sheer amount and uniformness of the bio-data would justify a separate access to the information
3.) A separate platform does NOT mean that wikispecies will have to be segregated from the wikipedia. Rather the opposite: wikispecies websites should use the same layout and should be accessible from wikipedia by normal search. More advanced users, however, would search with more detailed tools from the "wikispecies.org" portal.
So far, the ToL is ambitous, but doesn't serve the purpose of a wikispecies that should be organised in taxonomic terms and trees and deal exclusively for biological contents.
It is not meant to compete with wikipedia, but rather branch out of it without being a separate unit. I am looking forward to your support! By the way: most people who already assured me of their support were people who work as authors for wikipedia in bio-related subjects. Best,
Benedikt