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At the meeting of the IOPI Checklist Committee at the Real Jardín Botánico in Madrid, Spain, October 2, 1995, the concept of the provisional checklist was developed.
This decision, to get an initial preliminary Checklist started with minimal extra funding, was made in light of the lack of significant progress in that year and no likelihood of substantial extra funding being found without having some preliminary product. It was decided that this initial provisional Checklist would be available on the WorldWide Web via the IOPI Home Page and would serve several functions:
It is planned that this provisional Checklist will include
basic data for each species (or infraspecific taxon if present),
with three levels of data present: (i) source datasets (shown as
provided), (ii) provisionally coordinated entries, and (iii)
fully coordinated entries.
The basic data to be included initially will depend on what is
available from each source. However, we will aim ultimately to
include: genus + species (+ infraspecific epithet if relevant),
author, protologue bibliographic details, type details,
geographic distribution, and acknowledgement of source of data.
The family will be included (as in the published Kew list at
least initially - the list is continually being refined).
Users will access data by entering the taxon name into a query form on the screen. Initially, a version of the Checklist on disk (including a browser program) will be provided for users without WWW access (hard copy versions will also be produced).
It was agreed to start the preliminary Checklist with the same
three datasets as proposed for the start of the 'full' Checklist,
namely those for Australia, Peru and Europe. It was also agreed
to add the Casuarinaceae from the research of Karen Wilson and Dr
L. Johnson, as an example of a whole family (about 90 described
species). Other datasets can be added as soon as procedures are
in place and so long as the work-load can be handled.
It was agreed that these datasets would be received by Pankhurst
in Edinburgh, hand edited there, with funding needed to hire help
for this task. Once merged, the master Checklist would initially
be kept at Berlin for access via the Home Page, although this
might change to facilitate ease of access to the Checklist.
Botanical editing was to be channelled initially via Morin, but the Committee had concerns on the load that this would impose and is re-assessing this with a view to editing responsibility being delegated to a particular institution for a particular plant group, or done by specialists looking at the Home Page or by sending them the relevant files by email, on disk, or as print-outs. The Committee is aware of the problem of the quality of botanical editing for groups in which there is no specialist, but recognizes that, realistically, varying qualities of editing in the Checklist must be accepted; the existence of the Checklist and the Species Plantarum project should prompt botanists to take more interest in relatively neglected families.
The possibility of making a disk version of the preliminary Checklist available as widely as possible (perhaps with a browser added) will be explored, particularly given the need for permission from contributing dataset owners. This could then be used, as an alternative to the web pages, by specialists for botanically editing the Checklist.
Although the funding needed for this preliminary Checklist is estimated to be small, and hence obtainable, the Committee has not lost sight of the ultimate aim, a relational database Checklist based on the ISC datamodel, as set out in the Project Plan. While starting this preliminary version and, indeed, adding to it when possible, IOPI will continue to seek funds for the full relational database as planned. We believe that the existence of this preliminary Checklist, which can be demonstrated to potential funding agencies, will increase the appeal of the main Checklist plan.
[Karen Wilson, Convener, IOPI Checklist Committee]
The system in Berlin currently consists of an Intel Pentium 166 Server (128MB RAM / 2 x 8GB of mirrored disk capacity) using Microsoft server software. The operating system is Windows NT Server 4.0, the database management system SQL Server 6.5. HTML pages are served to the World Wide Web using the Internet Information Server.
The first setup of the database, which was accessible on the WWW until May 31,1997, was implemented by Mark A. Ziegler, who also programmed the generic conversion tool for tagged field format used in data import. This first GPC database was completely re-designed (May - July 1997) by Frank Wolfram, with the aim of closer adherence to the published IOPI model. The interface between SQL Server and Internet Information Server is now implemented using Microsoft Active Server Page technology.
The text on the pages was written (if not cited otherwise) by Walter Berendsohn and Karen Wilson.
(Direct financial contributions.)
Data conversions were supported by grants from the New Phytologist Trust ($ 1500) and from an Anonymous Donor ($ 750). The former has also sustained IOPI from the start ($ 2250 pa). Setting up the initial version of the database was supported by a grant from the International Association for Plant Taxonomy ($ 1000). The implementation of the revised database version is supported by a grant from an Anonymous Donor ($ 5000).
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Updated: November 26, 1998