- If you are also a programmer, you might prefer to start at [AboutIssueTracker]*
* It's a controlled vocabulary to help computers exchange information about the content and management of multimedia, such as images, audio, and video. * It also specifies recommended English labels for its use in web, desktop, and mobile applications about biodiversity. Labels in other languages, or other English labels can easily be specified by communities of biologists and developers.
2. Why should biologists care about AC?
* Biologists with no interest in either providing or using biodiversity media probably don't care about AC.
3. What good is AC?
* One use of multimedia is as an electronic voucher for a taxon occurrence. Another is to help identify unidentified specimens from suitable pictures of them, but there are other use cases, and contributors to this wiki may care to add some of their own at the bottom of this page. Such uses will probably need to consider media obtainable from many different places, and the web servers that provide them need to be inter-operable with the programs that use them. AC helps with that by providing a kind of electronic annotation vocabulary (analogous to gene annotation) of the biodiversity depicted in the media (e.g. its scientific name, its life stage, etc.)
4. Biologists are not computers, so why should they care about AC?
* To build web sites and programs that will enable these uses, developers will need the biologists they work for to help them understand the biologists' intent being conveyed from machine to machine for subsequent examination of the media by humans. If the AC terminology is inadequate to this task, the human understanding may fail, or worse, the picture may be adequate but never get fetched because querying based on AC terms might not reveal the necessary biology.
5. I'm a biologist. Do you want me to study all the 72 terms in the Term List?
* No. About half the terms are about managing media, not about the biodiversity they depict. However, if you are an avid nature photographer and have a big collection of images of your own, you might find that looking at those terms helps you manage your own collection. Specifically the following sections are about media management, not about biology: 6.1 ([http://terms.gbif.org/wiki/Audubon_Core_Term_List_(1.0_normative)#Management_Vocabulary Management Vocabulary]), 6.2 ([http://terms.gbif.org/wiki/Audubon_Core_Term_List_(1.0_normative)#Attribution_Vocabulary Attribution Vocabulary]), 6,3 ([http://terms.gbif.org/wiki/Audubon_Core_Term_List_(1.0_normative)#Agents_Vocabulary Agents Vocabulary]), 6.8 ([http://terms.gbif.org/wiki/Audubon_Core_Term_List_(1.0_normative)#Resource_Creation_Vocabulary Resource Creation Vocabulary]), most of 6.9 ([http://terms.gbif.org/wiki/Audubon_Core_Term_List_(1.0_normative)#Related_Resources_Vocabulary Related Resources Vocabulary]), and all of 6.10 ([http://terms.gbif.org/wiki/Audubon_Core_Term_List_(1.0_normative)#Related_Resources_Vocabulary Related Resources Vocabulary])
6. So during the public review ending March 31, 2013, how can I help with the biological content terms?
* Look over the [http://terms.gbif.org/wiki/Audubon_Core_Term_List_(1.0_normative) Term List], perhaps ignoring the sections mentioned above. For each term focus on the rows named "Label", "Definition" and "Notes". The rest is for geeks. Now imagine you want to make a spreadsheet or database table to describe the biological content depicted in your own image collection. Imagine you are making a spreadsheet or database table with one row for each image file you have. Don't label the first column but imagine the filenames are in that column. As you peruse the AC terms, when you think "Ah, that's something I'd put in my spreadsheet" imagine a column with its header the _Label_ entry in the AC term entry.
Here is an example I might produce using just a few of the terms to document a picture I took at the La Selva Biological Field Station. || ||Scientific Taxon Name|| Common Name || Identified By || ||pic1.jpg||Dictyophora indusiata||Veiled lady||William Haber||
7. Wait, there's very little about georeferencing? How can I use pictures to document species ranges? Georeferencing is critical for some applications.
* Yes, it's so important that AC delegates most of the subject to the [http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/2009-12-07/terms/#dcterms:Location Darwin Core Location] vocabulary. You can use any of those the same way you use terms defined in the [http://terms.gbif.org/wiki/Audubon_Core_Term_List_(1.0_normative) Term List]
8. That's it?
* Not quite. In this thought exercise (or real exercise if you prefer) ask yourself first, for a given term, did you find that the Label, the Definition, and the Notes are reasonably clear? At the end, ask yourself whether all of the biological concerns that you might wish to record in your imaginary spreadsheet are addressed in the term list. If the answer to any of these is "No", let us know why, in as much detail as you can bear to write down, perhaps making suggestions for addition or clarification. You can do that by sending email with your comments to [email protected] with a subject that starts with "AC Comment". Alternatively, you can comment on this web site following the instructions at [AboutIssueTracker]
9. Why did you leave the filename column header empty?
* Instead of a direct answer, I offer this suggestion: Find a programmer who works on biodiversity information systems. Ask her that question. While she is pondering it, say knowingly "Was it something to do with globally unique identifiers?" She will run away. But seriously, there's lots of stuff in AC that only the programmers need to discuss, even those who double as biologists in their spare time. If you aren't a programmer, we still hope to get your opinions.