re: Electronic Palaeontology

From
Date
Reply to a private query from Ian Francis: A number of people have inquired 
about any feedback I might have received about my submission to the Paleonet 
Forum "A Global Paleontology Basic Data Source" so that I am sending this 
reply to Paleonet as well as to you, especially as Paleo21 is soliciting 
ideas. Yes I have had some private discussion and interest. I would encourage 
all inquiries/responses to be directed to PaleoNet for the benefit of all. As 
far as directing you toward ongoing discussions, look for the results of 
workshops that took place at NAPC (Washington) last year and that should come 
available this winter, that you subscribe to the Data Exchange (DEX) mailing 
list by sending a request to
owner-dex@gly.fsu.edu, that you watch what comes out of the September meeting 
on Frankfurt on Paleontology in the 21st Century, and that you look at the 
PaleoBank Website. 

Several major themes appear repeatedly in the messages that have come to me, 
some of which are misconceptions about what I intended, and which I list here 
with my comments: 
1. I did not provide details about where funding might come from or where 
facilities might be available (sorry, this is beyond my capability but would 
be a major task of working groups dedicated to the job).
2. Lots of digital databases exist already, there are many more under 
development, and there is lots of effort going on now to standardize. (OK, 
but I was being more idealistic and long-term, suggesting what an end product 
might look like. It would be a universally and easily accessible [single 
entry point] data system which could be read and populated universally, and 
permitted eternal secure archiving. With regard to taxonomic, stratigraphic, 
and other data regarding actual fossils material [as opposed to storage 
information, etc.], the maintenance of a lot of independent systems, even if 
well accessed, seems to me to be a stop-gap measure.)
3. PaleoBank is already underway and will do the job. (I envisioned something 
grander than what is included in present Treatises, including virtually all 
the relevant data associated with fossils, down to the species level, a 
complete taxonomic, biostratigraphic, biogeographic,etc. catalogue of the 
world's fossils; but I remain unclear regarding the eventual scope of 
PaleoBank).
4. Self-population and journal collaboration are unrealistic and unnecessary. 
(I proposed this as a mechanism to overcome the lack of funds and personnel 
to enter the huge backlog of data that exists and thus permit the grandiose 
data system to be populated. It would also reduce the need for ongoing data 
entry personnel just to keep current.) 

More criticisms will undoubtedly crop up regarding the feasibility and 
desirability of this kind of pipe dream, but perhaps someone might pick up 
some small bit of inspiration from it. Simply homogenizing and accessing 
existing systems will be an enormous task and a great achievement, and we 
should be extremely grateful that some people are undertaking the task at the 
detailed level where results can be achieved. As we all understand, fewer and 
fewer of us are required to come to terms with an overwhealming literature, 
and to do it in more timely and effective fashion, and the benefits of modern 
electronic data manipulation and communication are to be pursued. Many thanks 
for your inquiry.
Terry Poulton
Chief Paleontologist
Geological Survey of Canada
ph. 403 292 7096
FAX 403 292 6014
I-net poulton@gsc.nrcan.gc.ca