Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Image management conventions

General principles

  1. Images will initially be hosted on the common picasa album or DET gallery hosting.
  2. copyright settings for each images rests with the image owner
  3. images within picasa will have undisputed ownership. ie the owners are readily identified . (See primary tagginging convention below)
  4. Image hosting, wiki and blog will migrate to DET hosting as it becomes available and remains demonstrably fit for this purpose.
  5. The best quality images, fit for purpose, will continually be selected for the wiki
  6. images used in the wiki will be exclusively
  • sourced solely from the affiliated picasa web album or DET gallery.
  • sourced from a contributors own verifiable personal web album be it flickr, windows live, photobucket, snapfish or whatever
  • have appropriate Creative Commons attribution if the above does not apply

Primary tagging convention:

  • all images in the common picasa album will have a primary tag name that identifies the contributor following common herbarium accessioning guidelines. Images are to be given a unique alpha-numeric identification code that identifies the image owner by intitials and cumulative number eg RM1, RM2 etc. This allows for ready upload of images without altering native image file names. Once uploaded a batch can be readily tagged to this convention. We may need to test wildcard searching within image hosting.

General tagging conventions:

  • all images pertaining to the one unique plant will be tagged in a similar fashion as the naming convention applying the principles of primacy. ie first described in the wiki pool. In this way if images named RM1, RM2 , RM3, PA14, PM567 all refer to the same individual and the tagging identifying it as individual RMEUC1 can readily be aggregated.
  • subsequent tagging taxonomy can evolve

These conventions allow for the potential of a subsequent database/s to be developed, to interact between virtual herbaria, the wiki, physical herbaria, seed collections and plantings.

Initial General Conventions

These are a starting point and I trust they will evolve overtime.
  • the look and feel of the wiki, I believe, have some restrictions but happy to test the boundaries
  • the prototype layouts, appearances , ideas etc are just that. I'm not beholden to any of them, and I hope they'll constantly evolve in wikiways
  • likewise these initial conventions are just that... somewhere to start
  • in being invited to join the wiki you'll also be invited to contribute to this blog under your own identity
  • invitied contributors will also be provided with access to a shared closed and private "igoogle page" ..ie all contributors will have the same google username and password. This is probably risky but in the short term could make things easy for those new to this method of collaboration
  • the "igoogle" page will link to affiliated picasa web photo albums to store images for use, accesible under the same username/password combo
  • the "igoogle" page will also link to all other affiliated resources
  • contributing to the wiki will be encouraged through whatever e-means folk are most comfortable with, be it email, blog, wiki or whatever. Likewise conversations and discussions about it's purpose, direction and support frameworks.
  • backup conventions for the risky areas will exist on a need to know basis
  • corrections of grammar, spelling, typos are welcome and encouraged

BMEucs- Raison d'ĂȘtre

This blog is for commentary regarding the development of
http://eucs.westernsydneyinstitute.wikispaces.net/
a wiki for the promotion and study of the diversity of eucalyptus and its related genera within the greater blue mountains world heritage area. (GBMWHA)
the wiki will remain closed & private until invited contributors are happy to have it public.
It is hoped that the wiki
  • provides access to the dynamics of taxonomy
  • demonstrates the conversation and process of plant identifcation
  • becomes a tool for learning and professional development
  • aspires to provide intuitive regional recognition and identification tools
  • is a challenge to its contributors