Use Case 10

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Use Case 10: Display Information (References, Specimens, etc.) Associated With Concepts (Reverse Query)

Actors

Primary Actor: most likely an individual researcher, ecologist or taxonomist, or anyone interested in sophisticated ways to explore information stored in the SEEK Taxon database.

This Use Case has already been called upon in other query work flows. The idea is that (1) names or other kinds of taxonomic information serve as "keys" to the "concept world", and then in turn (2) concepts (or more precisely: concept short-hands) are used as query vehicles to access the entire associated information content. This latter, "reversed" query process is covered in the current Use Case.

Flow of Events

Pre-conditions

The Primary Actor has already queried the SEEK Taxon database with a name and obtained a listing of matching concept short-hands - e.g. "Carya ovata (Miller) K. Koch sec. Stone, FNA 1997".

Basic Flow

The Primary Actor now selects to view the entire concept entry tied to the concept short-hand (see e.g. SEEK Taxon transfer schema, or slide 9 in Dr. Jessie Kennedy's TDWG Portugal Powerpoint presentation (see http://cvs.ecoinformatics.org/cvs/cvsweb.cgi/seek/projects/taxon/docs/seektdwg.ppt). Additional queries can now start.

Examples

Easily imaginable, concept short-hand turns into a complete concept entry.

Post-conditions

A clear and concise labeling of what kinds of information certain concepts contain, so that only "worthwhile" concepts are explored by the user.

Alternative Flows

Part of most interactive query work flows; a complete concept entry includes the option to view connections to synonymous and parent/child concepts.

Further Details

See other Use Cases involving or expanding on queries.

Non-functional Requirements

None (in particular, i.e. most are mentioned in other Use Cases for querying).

Issues

Reverse queries will be more effective if concepts are not unnecessarily "inflated" such that each individual concept carries very little unique information. They could also become vehicles to connect to "identifications", e.g. specimens in museums or observations in ecological publications that are linked to authoritative concepts (rather than representing independent concept entries themselves). Thus in many taxonomic database applications, concepts will also represent "keys" to distributional and other information of interest to users.

History

26 March 2004: (NMF) Use Case created from previous Word document.

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This particular version was published on 30-Jun-2004 13:51:54 PDT by LTER.stekell.