Agent Action Darwin Core Extension

1. People in Biodiversity Data Task
Group
Newly ratified Darwin Core terms &
an update on the Agent Actions Darwin Core Extension
David P. Shorthouse
Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa
@dpsSpiders

4. Darwin Core
https://dwc.tdwg.org/terms/

5. Best Practices…
• Single identifier per person
• Resolvable URI (eg http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2624463)
• Multiple URIs for 2+ people separated by: <space> | <space>
• Desirable: identifier is a known property on Wikidata

6. 54 datasets including…
2.1M instances on GBIF.org

7. Limitations…
• Only available as a counterpart for recordedBy and identifiedBy
• What about georeferencedBy, measurementDeterminedBy?
• Does not include:
• Type of agent: Person or Organization (or Software?)
• Type of identifier: VIAF, ORCID, ISNI, etc.
• Display order
• Aliases
• Verbatim representations (eg Mrs. John Smith)
• Granularity of actions (eg verified, observed, preserved, transcribed, etc.)

11. https://bit.ly/320oin8

12. Agent Action Occurrence
(Observation / Material Sample)

13. agentType, agentIdentifierType, identifier, name, alternateName,
verbatimName
action, role, displayOrder, startedAtTime, endedAtTime
Vocab: Person, Organization, SoftwareApplication
Vocab: ORCID, VIAF, Wikidata, ResearcherID, HUH, RoR, Ringgold, GRID
Vocab: collected, identified, verified, georeferenced, prepared, etc.
Vocab: primary collector role, specimen collection role (Contributor Role Ontology)
eg “1” or “2” (Getty Vocabulary)

14. What Does it Look Like?
https://bit.ly/3ox7VWS
Rukaya Sarah Johaadien

15. Next Steps…
Manuscript in preparation for Biodiversity Information Science and
Standards
NEEDS: agreement on action terms, definitions and translations, use-
cases, resolution between adjoining extensions (eg identification
history extension)
https://github.com/tdwg/attribution/issues