Specific goals of CATE
Discussion of new initiatives in taxonomy can become very hypothetical unless one has a concrete product to explore and debate. The primary goal of CATE is to produce two model first web revisions for a group of animals (the hawkmoths, Sphingidae) and a group of plants (part of the aroid family, Araceae). Specifically, for each group we aim:
- To produce a web site containing a modern treatment of the group in the appropriate taxonomic tradition
- To design a system in which a consensus taxonomy and alternative taxonomic hypotheses can both be housed
- To design web-based mechanisms allowing taxonomic hypotheses to be reviewed and revised, and for the consensus taxonomy to change over time
- To include a mechanism by which the taxonomic content is refereed on the web by specialists and those with a particular interest in the target taxa
- To enable the web taxonomy to link to other initiatives such as global catalogues, the web of life initiative, bar-coding and other molecular sites, as well as to specimen-level databases
- To maximise the extent to which the sites are useful for end-users, and to allow them to contribute data and information on different species
- To store the basic taxonomic data in such a way that it can be used for projects other than CATE
- To encourage, by example, the rest of the taxonomic community to produce similar products
- To work within the relevant taxonomic Codes, which currently mandate that taxonomic hypotheses require print publication, while exploring the practicalities and implications of taxonomic publication on the internet.
