This BioLists site is actively being reorganised.

Most recent update: 15-Dec-2011

BIOLISTS - A UNIQUE GRASS-ROOTS BIODIVERSITY INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM.

With BioLists, you quickly and easily make biodiversity checklists for your selections of any/all named species.

Your lists are automatically classified so that they indicate the broad evolutionary relationships of the species.

Any/all species names are listed in the same, that is, predictable, taxonomic sequence in any/all checklists.

Species records are designed to be used as an index for recording and managing species-related information.

In these and other ways, BioLists records are ideal for Ecology, Conservation and, of course, Natural History.

In the 1980s I devised a system to make taxonomy accessible to any interested person.  By the early 1990s I had a fully functional program, the SKI-System (SKIS) running on MS-DOS.   Advances in computer hardware soon made this redundant and professional interest in Taxonomy was at a low ebb. Now, biodiversity issues show that a web-based version is needed.

BioLists (c)  &  SKIS (c),   1990-2011       and   Gunn Interactive

Comments welcome.   Cedric Woods, Dunedin, New Zealand.   drcedric@gmail.com

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DELETE BELOW

 

SKIS?   Today we're "sliding down the razor blade of Life" (Tom Lehrer),
                           gaining momentum to ascend the other side of the biodiversity crisis tomorrow.

"Revitalizing taxonomy is the greatest scientific challenge of our time. Knowledge of our world's species can help us and all future generations expand our understanding of the living world and solve environmental and human welfare challenges. Revitalizing taxonomy is the noblest contribution that our generation can make to humankind. No future generation will ever have access to the number and diversity of species that we have. For comparatively modest costs we can provide a legacy of specimens, data, information and knowledge that will inspire and inform all humans that follow us." Wheeler (2008: p.13)(See full reference on Taxonomy page.)
 

My response: (Draft - 22-July-2011)

A  FLEXIBLE,  BIODIVERSITY  INFORMATION  MANAGEMENT  SYSTEM

- for Grass-roots (and Professional) Taxonomic and associated Data Capture.

With BioLists, basic taxonomic classification is used as an index for the management of species-related information.

In the 1980s I devised a system to make taxonomy accessible to any interested person. By the early 1990s I had a fully functional program running on DOS, but advances in computer hardware soon made this redundant. Now, I again have computer support for a new version - a web-based version.

WHAT:
This new system:
- allows exceedingly rapid electronic data capture of taxonomic names and associated information.

- gives instant access to basic biological taxonomy in classified records and lists. Helps organise projects.

- is primarily for environmental data capture, eg inventory work in the field using a hand-held device.

- will assist any size of ecology or monitoring project; can be made free of taxonomic complications.

- makes checklists that are all taxonomically compatible for easy comparison and integration.

- produces classified checklists that are instantly uploadable to screen, the web, email or disk.

- provides (field) data in a suitable form for immediate integration into spreadsheets and databases.

- equally valid for data management that is linked to taxonomy - by librarians, journalists, parents, ...

- produces taxonomic indexes for books, theses and reports. Suitable for school use (age 11+).

- is a tool for investigating all biodiversity at many levels, such as projects involving climate change.

- will serve biodiversity conservation, education, information technology, agriculture and related areas.

- is intentionally convenient for use of available Common Names; hoping to foster better use of these.

- can hope to foster natural history, and help reintroduce it to museums that have lost touch with it.

- will be of use to science administrators and professional taxonomists (outside their areas of expertise).

Inter alia, it will provide a pragmatic mechansim for quickly reducing lax taxonomy.

LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION - - GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING - - INTEGRATED ACTION