www.cate-project.org

Project Leaders: Prof. Charles Godfray (Oxford Univ., Imperial Coll., Kew Trustee), Dr Malcolm Scoble (Keeper of Entomology, NHM)

NERC-funded

Original institutional Partners : RBG Kew, NHM, Imperial College.

Major collaborators : Oxford University, Missouri Botanical Garden.

• Feasibility study: web-based, consensus taxonomy for two model groups (1 plant, 1 animal)

• Build sites and initial content for each taxon

• Build software framework for on-going revision by the community

• Build human-institutional framework for sustaining consensual, rolling revision

AIMS

• Attract significant commitment from taxonomic specialists as editors, contributors and trustees of site

• Attract users of taxonomy (ecologists, geneticists, horticulturists, educators, etc.)

• Wider impact as source of authoritative taxonomic information (e.g. GBIF, educational organizations)

Target communities

• Providing contributors with career credit of sufficient value

• Building an environment in which taxonomists feel secure in contributing their data – IPR issues satisfactorily resolved

• Making the case for web publication being as important as paper publication

• Ensuring high quality of output

Challenges

Sphingidae: Hawkmoths

Araceae: Aroids

Araceae Content Team: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Simon Mayo Anna Haigh Laura Reynolds

Anthurium 800+ species

108 genera

Philodendron 420+ species

Marcela Mora, BogotaTom Croat (Missouri Botanical Garden)

Araceae Content Team: Major international collaborators

Josef Bogner (Munich Botanical Garden)

Anthurium 800+ species 108 genera

Philodendron 420+ species

Taxonomy in public domain:

published work: revisions, monographs, new species papers, flora treatments

Evaluate, filter, augment with images, edit critically

Upload onto Internet

Edited version of current taxonomy (not a new revision!)

Updated “Consensus” taxonomy

Rolling Revision

Make the current taxonomy available on the Web

Araceae Content Team

Set up mechanism for regular/continuous update

Involve taxonomic community: build an “institution” collectively

Aggregate the taxonomic specialists

Outputs on the Web

Starting Point

Content Team transforms into Editorial Team

Build software

Build software

Transfer software management to Kew by project end

Project software hosted at

Imperial Coll. and NESC

Ben Clark