Requirements doc
Requirements doc
IPTOL: iPlant Tree of Life
My-Plant.org
Requirements & Implementation Document
Version: 0.1
Contact:
Praveen Nuthulapati,
Matthew Hanlon,
Steve Mock
Last edited: Praveen Nuthulapati
1. Introduction
The Goal of the myplant.org to develop a network for communication among scientists and to provide access to relevant scientific information that is constructed to simulate a phylogenetic hierarchy, with nested sets of increasing inclusivity, to which users can connect at nodes that match their scientific interest.
3. [Technical Req_Implementation Details]
4. Future Enhancements & Possibilities
While this may start as a simple social network, we envision this to expand to be a data and information network that retains the same phylogenetic framework. We believe that the power of this network to provide some tangible resources in a phylogenetically organized way is one of the benefits that will attract participation world-wide. Some of the following are ideas that we would like to see implemented.
A. Links to the Tree of Life website, APweb, EOL, wikipedia/wikispecies (where appropriate).
B. A search engine to run GenBank searches for sequences relevant to clades that correspond to the hierarchy in the network
C. A bibliographic database, or search engine, to find literature relevant to clades. Maybe this is nothing more than an automated link to Google Scholar, but it would be great if there could be a database of downloadable pdfs for relevant material that is public domain or open access.
D. An image gallery of plant species. Links again, or new database?
E. A morphology database, where individual users can upload images, etc. that can be searched by clade (as distinct from simply an image gallery of plant photos).
F. An automated system to send out notifications of newly described species as they are added to IPNI, or other sources?
G. Other resources for floristic and monographic research and to disseminate such work. A proposal for a rapid assessment monograph program has recently been developed. "My-Plant.org" could facilitate the coordination of the human resources needed to accomplish such goals.