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---+!! Historical <noautolink>%WEB%</noautolink> wiki site. Deprecated.
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*Note*: These Wiki pages are for historical purposes, they *do not* reflect the content of the current standard, which can be found at

* http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/index.htm


---++ Purpose and design goals of the Darwin Core.

<blockquote> 
The Darwin Core is a specification of data concepts and structure 
    intended to support the retrieval and integration of primary data that documents
    the occurrence of organisms in space and time and the occurrence of organisms 
    in biological collections. 
</blockquote>

<p>Information resources falling within this scope include databases about natural 
  history collections, living collections (_i.e._, zoological and botanical gardens), 
  germplasm and genetic resource collections, and data sets produced from biodiversity 
  survey and monitoring programs. These data resources support a wide variety 
  of purposes and consequently they have different structures, but all can contribute 
  to documenting the distributions of organisms. A secondary function of the Darwin 
  Core is to enable a user to discover the contents of biological collections. 
  Because biological collections are diverse, however, the Darwin Core supports 
  the search and retrieval of descriptive information in relatively simple ways.</p>

<h3>The following design goals have shaped the Darwin Core and should be used to inform decisions about making changes to it.</h3>

<ol>
  <li>The Darwin Core must support the combination of data from multiple sources 
    into a structured data set.</li>
  <li>The structure and content should minimize the additional effort required 
    to support further manipulation and analysis of the data.</li>
  <li>The schema definition should not overly restrict data content and thereby diminish the utility of data validation tools to improve data quality at the source.</li> 
  <li>Every record must be identifiable by a required set of data concepts (elements 
    or attributes), within the context of the returned data set (result of a search) 
    and ideally within the context of all resources made available through a system, 
    portal, or registry.</li>
  <li>The Darwin Core should support queries that use data values in a semantic 
    context. For example, a query for <span class="literal"> Collector = &quot;Smith&quot;</span> 
    should return different records than a query for <span class="literal">IdentifiedBy 
    = &quot;Smith&quot;</span>. </li>
  <li>The Darwin Core should support basic data types so that appropriate comparison 
    operators can be used in queries; for example, <span class="literal">MaximumElevationInMeters 
    &lt;= 100</span></li>
  <li>The Darwin Core is intended to be simple; 
    <ol type="a">
      <li>simplicity reduces the barriers for data providers,</li>
      <li>simplicity maximizes availability to data consumers, from desktop software 
        to other analysis and integration services.</li>
    </ol>
  </li>
  <li>The Darwin Core is intended to accommodate data that are relatively common 
    -- concepts that can be used across more than one discipline, 
    concepts that are commonly found in relevant databases, and populated frequently 
    enough to be broadly useful. </li>
  <li>The Darwin Core is intended to relatively stable 
    -- concepts included in the core are those broadly agreed upon and relatively likely to remain unchanged over time. </li>
</ol>
<p>The Darwin Core is an unordered set of simple elements. This simplicity makes the Darwin Core inadequate for some purposes: 
<ul>
 <li>The Darwin Core is <b>not</b> a sufficient model or data structure for managing primary data, such as a collection database; </li>

 <li>The Darwin Core is also expected to be insufficiently complete for the needs of specialized disciplines of biodiversity.  Data concepts deemed useful or required by a community can be specified in an <a href="/PendingIssues/Extensions">extension</a> of the Darwin Core -- and a new application schema that imports the Darwin Core schema and the schemas for all relevant extensions can be created for use within the specialized community. See the <a href="http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/tdwg_dw_record_tapir.xsd">Darwin application schema</a> for an example of how this can be done for applilcations using the TAPIR protocol.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Differences from Previous Versions</h3>

<p>Previous versions of the Darwin Core were integrated with the !DiGIR protocol, as could be seen by the presence of !DiGIR substitution group attributes in the element definitions (e.g., <a href="http://digir.net/schema/conceptual/darwin/core/2.0/darwincoreWithDiGIRv1.3.xsd">darwincoreWithDiGIRv1.3.xsd</a> ).  The version of Darwin Core presented here does <b>not</b> contain any references to a data retrieval protocol.


-- Main.StanleyBlum - 14 May 2006



---++ Comments 
Use the space below to make comments about this page. -- Main.JohnWieczorek - 24 Aug 2006

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%ICON{bubble}% *Purpose and design goals - suggestions*
Posted by: Steven Ginzbarg [mailto:sginzbar@@biology.as.ua.edu]  Date: Wed, 05 Oct 2004, 05:49:35

Purpose and design goals of the Darwin Core 2.

The Darwin Core is a specification of data concepts and structure intended to support the retrieval and integration of primary data that documents the occurrence of organisms in space and time[.] [OMIT and the occurrence of organisms in biological collections. (Information in the core Darwin Core (not the curatorial extension) on the occurrence of organisms in biological collections is limited to documenting the location and identity of the voucher specimen/observation on which the information is based.)]

Information resources falling within this scope include databases about natural history collections, living collections (_i.e._, zoological and botanical gardens), germplasm and genetic resource collections, and data sets produced from biodiversity survey and monitoring programs.  These data resources support a wide variety of purposes and consequently they have different structures, but all can contribute to documenting the distributions of organisms. [MENTION 2NDARY FUNCTION LAST, CHANGE: A secondary function of the Darwin Core is to enable a user to discover the contents of biological collections. Because biological collections are diverse, however, the Darwin Core supports the search and retrieval of descriptive information in relatively simple ways. TO: Darwin Core allows the search and retrieval of those basic data elements shared by most data resources. Other than the occurrence of organisms in space and time, information in the Darwin Core associated with the collection or observation of organisms is limited to documenting the location and identity of the voucher specimen or observation on which the information is based.]

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%ICON{bubble}%
Posted by: Steven Ginzbarg [mailto:sginzbar@@biology.as.ua.edu]  Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004, 05:49:35

On their draft proposal website ABCD says "To accomplish interoperability, the development of both ABCD and !DwC will strive to keep both standards compatible on the element level, so that a mutual translation of documents will be possible."

What will !DwC do from our end to promote convergence of the two standards? Making the !DwC itself compatible with ABCD should pose no great problems. My concern is the extensions. The decentralized approach that !DwC has taken allows the various diciplines to develop their
extensions independently. Will they be encouraged to interact closely with ABCD in the development of their extensions?

ABCD considers Darwin Core (!DwC) and ABCD to be complementary standards. The question, why maintain two global standards for biological collections data needs to be addressed. The goal is to achieve one standard but the best way to reach that goal may be to have two standards for now.

Depending on how !DwC and ABCD collaborate it could be either two heads are better than one or too many cooks spoil the broth. From the ABCD draft proposal website at: http://www.bgbm.org/TDWG/CODATA/Schema/default.htm.

The Darwin Core 2 (!DwC) is a simple set of data element definitions designed to support the sharing and integration of primary biodiversity data. !DwC has also been presented to TDWG as a Draft Standard. See http://DarwinCore.CalAcademy.org for details.

Darwin Core (!DwC) and ABCD are complementary standards. Whereas !DwC has a flat structure of 44 elements, ABCD has a highly hierarchical structure that supports repeating elements and complex types. In order to accommodate detailed data, often according to multiple standards, as well as free text alternatives where detailed data cannot be provided, ABCD contains about 700 elements.  While making the mapping process and the development of data portals more demanding than with !DwC, this complexity widens the application of the schema from a minimum-common-denominator approach for resource discovery to a standard that can that can meet the demands where more detailed data
are needed.

To accomplish interoperability, the development of both ABCD and !DwC will strive to keep both standards compatible on the element level, so that a mutual translation of documents will be possible. The elements of !DwC have been mapped to ABCD to illustrate the strong overlap and the few existing semantic differences.
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*Note*: The Darwin Core is currently undergoing an review as a TDWG standard.  The pages provide information historical information, but do not reflect the content of the currently proposed standard. The official public review process will begin as soon as the TDWG Executive Committee announces the open public commentary period, which will last at least thirty days. Once ratified, the standard will be published and these pages will be updated. The current proposed standard can be found at
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<h3>The following design goals have shaped the Darwin Core.</h3>
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<p>The Darwin Core is an unordered set of simple elements.  Discussions about the structure or the lack of it can be found under <a href="/PendingIssues/SchemaLevel">/PendingIssues/SchemaLevel</a>.  This simplicity makes the Darwin Core inadequate for some purposes: 
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    operators can be used in queries; for example, <span class="literal">ElevationInMeters 
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<p>At present the Darwin Core is only an unordered set of simple elements.  Pending issues about this structure or the lack of it can be found <a href="/PendingIssues/SchemaLevel">here</a>.  This simplicity makes the Darwin Core inadequate for some purposes: 
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 <li>The Darwin Core is<b> not</b> a sufficient model or data structure for managing primary data, such as a collection database; </li>
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 <li>The Darwin Core is also expected to be insufficiently complete for the needs of almost any specialized discipline of biodiversity.  Data concepts deemed useful or required by such community can be specified in an <a href="/PendingIssues/Extensions">extension</a> of the Darwin Core -- a new schema that imports the DarwinCore and adds new elements for use within the specialized community. </li>
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---++ Purpose and design goals of the Darwin Core 2.
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<p>At present the Darwin Core 2 is only an unordered set of simple elements.  Pending issues about this structure or the lack of it can be found <a href="/PendingIssues/SchemaLevel">here</a>.  This simplicity makes the Darwin Core inadequate for some purposes: 
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<h3>Difference from Previous Version</h3>
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<p>Previous versions of the Darwin Core 2 were integrated with the !DiGIR protocol, as could be seen by the presence of !DiGIR substitution group attributes in the element definitions (e.g., <a href="http://digir.net/schema/conceptual/darwin/core/2.0/darwincoreWithDiGIRv1.3.xsd">darwincoreWithDiGIRv1.3.xsd</a> ).  The version of Darwin Core 2 presented here does <b>not</b> contain any references to a data retrieval protocol.
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Use the space below to make comments about this page. -- Main.JohnWieczorek - 24 Aug 2006@


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  history collections, living collections (i.e., zoological and botanical gardens), 
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<p>Previous versions of the Darwin Core 2 were integrated with the DiGIR protocol, as could be seen by the presence of DiGIR substitution group attributes in the element definitions (e.g., <a href="http://digir.net/schema/conceptual/darwin/core/2.0/darwincoreWithDiGIRv1.3.xsd">darwincoreWithDiGIRv1.3.xsd</a> ).  The version of Darwin Core 2 presented here does <b>not</b> contain any references to a data retrieval protocol.
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-- Main.StanleyBlum - 14 May 2006
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