Small pieces loosely joinedBuilding scientific web communities with Scratchpads

S. Rycroft, D. Roberts, K. Harman, V. Smith

Macro scale taxonomyThe big picture of taxonomic research

Goal…• Inventory the Earth’s species• Document their relationships• “Publish” these data

Data set…• 1.8M described species• 300M pages (over last 250 years)• 1.5-3B specimens

People…• 4-6K scientists• 30-40K amateurs

Micro scale taxonomyThe practice of taxonomic research

Sociology…• Parochial• Specialized experts• Fragmented & distributed

Methodology…• Different• Communities of practice• Data rich

Output…• Heterogeneous & scattered• High volume, low impact• Hard to find (use)

Integrating micro & macro taxonomyPulling taxonomy and taxonomists together

The traditional approach• One size fits all• Specific to developers• Unsustainable• Results in few users and slow

adoption

Scratchpads attempt to bridge this gap

Your data1

Published & reviewed

on your site

3Uploaded & tagged

2

What is a Scratchpad?A website for you & your community

Your data

Specimens

ImagesLiterature

DNA & Phylogenies

Descriptions

Taxonomy backbone

• Classification import from uBio Classification Bank

• Import from tab delimited files in three different formats

• Makes use of a core feature of Drupal

Auto tagging

• Quick and easy• Data available immediately after

upload• Works with any extra data that

may be added to a taxonomy (vernacular names, synonymy)

http://catlife.myspecies.info/

Sucking lice (Anoplura) have around 500 species and represent the smaller of the two traditional suborders of lice. The Anoplura are all blood-feeding ectoparasites of mammals. They can cause localised skin irritations and are vectors of several blood-borne diseases.

Children appear particularly susceptible to attracting lice, possibly due to their fine hair.

At least three species of Anoplura are parasites of humans; the human condition of being infested with sucking lice is called pediculosis. Pediculus humanus is divided into two subspecies, Pediculus humanus humanus, or the body louse, sometimes nicknamed "the seam squirrel" for its habit of laying of eggs in the seams of clothing, and Pediculus humanus capitis, or the head louse. Phthirus pubis (the pubic louse) is the cause of the condition known as crabs

Small pieces loosely joined

Has many potential meanings:• Joining contributors together to form

communities

Small pieces loosely joined

Has many potential meanings:• Joining contributors together to form

communities• Joining the data together that go

towards forming a Scratchpad

Taxon pages

• Content is displayed in “Panels” on “taxon pages”

• Panels is a plugin feature for Drupal provided by a third party

• Extended with “View controls” and a “Panel creation wizard”

Default Panels

Default Panels

Small pieces loosely joined

Has many potential meanings:• Joining contributors together to form

communities• Joining the data together that go

towards forming a Scratchpad• Joining Scratchpad content with the

landscape of biodiversity informatics data on the web

TapirLink provides specimens to GBIF

based on Darwincore

Common Drupal base means LifeDesk

modules will work with Scratchpads

Working with colleagues in Berlin,

we’ll also be providing data to the

EDIT CDM

Questions?