[Nhcoll-l] Passenger Pigeon Manifesto

[Douglas Yanega]

On 9/21/20 8:55 AM, Adam Harangozó wrote:
>
> Dear All,
>
> I would like to share news about a publication that just came out and 
> is very relevant to natural history and heritage:
>
> "Signed by a large number of professionals, the Passenger Pigeon 
> Manifesto is a call to public galleries, libraries, archives, and 
> museums to liberate cultural heritage that has already been digitised."
>
> The Manifesto: http://ppmanifesto.hcommons.org 
> <https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fppmanifesto.hcommons.org%2F&data=02%7C01%7Ccarleton%40ohio.edu%7C25cd983a817843a6e2c208d859b778c7%7Cf3308007477c4a70888934611817c55a%7C0%7C0%7C637357991832326799&sdata=XPFF3fWLPAX3qLrsEDP24hGTY1G6%2BxsxkCPdBgvuy0s%3D&reserved=0> 
> It was published by multiple platforms online and will appear in print 
> publications too.
>
> Please do share it with others and consider acting on the call. 
> Twitter posts for sharing are available here: 
> https://twitter.com/adamhrngzo/status/1305522265803505665 
> <https://twitter.com/adamhrngzo/status/1305522265803505665>, 
> https://twitter.com/Europeanaeu/status/1305872588103725056 
> <https://twitter.com/Europeanaeu/status/1305872588103725056>
>
There is a fairly significant problem with one of the suggestions 
included in this ambitious and otherwise carefully-thought-out document, 
at least insofar as images that link to taxonomy:

The closing section suggests to make use of the Wikimedia Commons (WC) 
as a source for "liberated" digital images. While on the surface this is 
a good idea, the problematic aspect is that a fairly substantial portion 
of the images presently archived in WC fall into two categories that 
greatly undermine their utility - (1) *many* are from outdated sources, 
using scientific names linked to the original image sources but that are 
no longer valid, resulting in inappropriate placement in the WC 
hierarchy, and (2) *many* are misidentified, using scientific names that 
do not apply at all to the species in the image. On top of which, (3) 
*many* of the taxonomic hierarchies appearing in WC are themselves 
outdated, using family names or other higher taxonomic ranks that are 
obsolete or configured differently than what appears in WC. Case in 
point: the passenger pigeon louse (Columbicola extinctus) is presently 
classified in the Order Phthiraptera, in the Superorder Psocodea; in WC, 
however, Psocodea is incorrectly listed as an Order, and Phthiraptera is 
not one of its constituents. People using WC as a source of taxonomic 
data are often being given outdated and erroneous results.

Adding more images from more sources will only increase the number of 
contributed images falling into these undesirable categories, *unless* a 
substantial effort is undertaken to employ qualified taxonomic experts 
who can act as "digital curators" and address the presently chaotic 
misplacement, misidentification, and misclassification issues.

Adam: with all due respect, I would urge you to bring my comments to the 
attention of the other co-signatories of this document, with 
consideration as to editing the proposal to account for the explicit 
need to employ taxonomic expertise to assist the endeavor. Images that 
*are not what they claim to be* are a form of misinformation, and making 
them available *without quality control* does not advance the 
community's aims.

Sincerely,

-- 
Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314     skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82

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