The document discusses scientific names for species and challenges around managing them globally. It notes that while there are estimated nearly 2 million known living species, there is no single comprehensive compilation of their scientific names. It describes how names are governed by various taxonomic codes and lists maintained by different authorities. The document advocates for building a global infrastructure to interconnect taxonomic data and names across sources on the internet in order to improve discovery, access and reuse of this information.

1. globalnames.org

2.  Mostly referring to species
 Binomial and author Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758
 Binomial
 Generic vehicle
 Species epithet
 Author of names
 Date of publication
 Ideally - One valid name for a species, and each name
used for only one species
 Roles
 Traditional, as tokens for species (the global
inventory), overseen by taxonomists
 New, in an infrastructure to manage data

3.  Don’t know
 There is no single comprehensive compilation
 Estimated 1,900,000 living species reported
 Estimated 300,000 extinct species reported
 Estimated 250,000 genera appropriate
 Estimated 30,000 suprageneric taxa appropriate
 Global Names Index has 22,000,000 name-strings for
names
 Names are common knowledge
 Openly available in the scientific literature

4.  The are associated with data
 Can be used as metadata
 To index content
 And build a names-based
cyber-infrastructure to
interconnect data distributed
across the internet 9
 There are problems …

5.  One taxon with one name
 Many lexical variants
 All legitimate
 This list is very incomplete

6. Eastern Lowland Gorilla King kong
ゴリラ
Mountain gorilla
Gorilla berengei Gorille
Gorilla beringei Matschie Virunga
Gorilla beringei mikenensis
Gorilla gorilla
大猩猩
Горилла
Gorilla graueri
Koko
Guerilla
Gorila

7. VERNACULAR NAMES OBJECTIVE SYNONYMS
Gorilla English Gorilla beringei
Mountain Gorilla English Gorilla beringei Matschie, 1902
Eastern Gorilla English Gorilla beringei mikenensis Lönnberg, 1917
Eastern lowland gorilla English
Gorille des plaines orientales French Typos
Grauer’s gorilla English Gorilla berengei
Горилла Russian
Gorila Spanish Koko
Bergsgorilla German King kong
Låglandsgorilla Swedish Guerilla
Bwindi Kinyarwanda
Virunga Kinyarwanda
大猩猩 Chinese
ゴリラ Japanese
SUBJECTIVE SYNONYMS
Gorilla graueri Matschie, 1914
Gorilla beringei graueri (Matschie, 1914)
Gorilla gorilla

8. Resolution Services
 Using the name preferred by your favored taxonomic source

9.  International Code of Zoological Nomenclature
 International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes
 International Code of Nomenclature of Algae, Fungi and
Plants
 Determine how names are created (they have to be
published in the public domain)
 Manage alternative names (synonyms)
 Prevent re-use of same name (homonyms)

10.  International Plant Name Index
 Index Fungorum
 List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in
Nomenclature
 ZooBank and various speciality nomenclators
 Judicial
 Compile lists of names that are compliant with the
relevant Code
 Point to nomenclatural acts in the literature
 Are moving from paper to the e-world

11.  Make judgments
 Discover and describe new species
 In compliance with the Codes of Nomenclature
 Review taxonomic knowledge (confirming, merging or
splitting previously described species)
 Create hierarchical lists of species (classifications)
 Provide citations for nomenclatural and taxonomic acts

12.  Users need to access
multiple sites
 In the digital age, lists have been End users
compiled and aggregated in databases
 Built into compilations
(such as jellyfish of the world)
Global
 Periodically revised by Aggregators
taxonomists, the process Domain
includes judgments that compilations
incorporate prior
judgments Taxonomists
Revisions
 Created and managed Taxonomists
by thousands of Literature New records
taxonomists Records
 Records of 2.3 million species
distributed in 500 million pages

13.  All names to index all content End users
 Linked through a unifying
infrastructure Infrastructure
 Retaining the taxonomic
value, not repeating, just Global
pointing to it Aggregators
 Alternative names Domain
reconciled compilations
 Offering resolution – Taxonomists
the name according Revisions
to a taxonomic Taxonomists
authority Literature
New records
Records

25. What is accessible, search, browse and download

26. What is accessible, search, browse and download

27.  No complete list
 No comment system for improving quality (such
systems exist elsewhere)
 Reticence to allow content downloads
 Absence of web-services to ensure free and instant
flow of content
 Licensing constraints assume rights
 Uncertainty about legalities regarding
 Names
 Compilations of names
 Data associated with names
 Opinions associated with names