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TDWG DQIG TG2 Workshop on Core Tests and Assertions

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Arthur Chapman edited this page Feb 21, 2018 · 1 revision

Gainesville, Florida, 16-19 January 2018

Attendees:

  • Lee Belbin (Leader TG2 – ALA)
  • Arthur Chapman (Co-Convenor, TDWG DQIG)
  • Paul Morris (Chair, TDWG TAG - Kurator)
  • Alex Thompson (Convenor, TDWG Annotations - IGiDigBio)
  • John Wieczorek (Convenor, Darwin Core Maintenance IG – VertNet)
  • Paula Zermoglio (Leader, proposed Vocabulary TG)

Summary

This was an intense but rewarding 4 days of meeting to review each of details of the proposed CORE tests-assertions for the TDWG Data Quality Task Group 2: Tests and Assertions. Each of the tests identified by prior votesing then edited as CORE were examined in detail and edited by the team for each descriptive field and overall intent and consistency.

Some tests were deprecated to SUPPLIMENTAL, some were removed entirely, and other new tests (designated TG2-Gainesville) were added, usually to address issues of consistency. For example, a test for an EMPTY value was required before any VALIDATION test could be performed, and any AMENDMENT required an equivalent VALIDATION.

We were left with 98 CONFIRMED tests (included as Issues in the GitHub). The final number may change as follow up from the meeting continues. Of these 98, 5 were MEASURES, 63 were VALIDATIONS and 27 were AMENDMENTS. The utility of the occurrence record ‘hypercube’ concept suggested that they also be classified as NAME (27), SPACE (38), TIME (28) and OTHER (21).

We recognized that the overall process was to run the tests in the order Validations > Amendments > Validations. If a validation fails (is flagged), an amendment may be possible, but that amendment may need re-validation. In some cases, amendments needed to be run to populate canonical Darwin Core terms that would then require validation in the context of the full record.

A key outcome of the process has been the development of a suite of Principles. The previously circulated principles were refinedmodified and added to during the Gainesville meeting. An updated list of Principles will be made available shortly.

I thank all those present for their contributions. This type of work is totally impossible without face-to-face interaction and we made significant progress towards finalization of the tests during those four days.

We thank the ALA, CSIRO, Kurator and iDigBio for supporting travel and accommodation and for making venues and equipment available for the meeting.

Lee Belbin

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