One of the best ways to test the adequacy of taxonomic database standards is to build tools on top of them. TaxonWorks (http://taxonworks.org) is an ambitious, open source effort to provide an all-in-one wrapper around the taxonomist’s workflow. Its development is supported by an endowment that facilitates and encourages its community to address long-term questions of sustainability and project evolution. At its core the project seeks to serve both its users (scientists) by providing an ever evolving and improving workbench and, equally important, its developers by providing a modern, open, extensible and deployable codebase. The data model includes coverage for nearly all classes of data recorded in modern taxonomic treatments or biodiversity informatics studies. Technical features include a unit-tested codebase, JSON serving application programming interface (API), web accessible interfaces, batch loading and export capabilities, and application containerization and Kubernetes-based deployment. Mechanisms for contributing at many different levels not just application code (e.g. providing use-cases, interface mockups, critical assessments, help documents, data modelling and standardization) are possible.

TaxonWorks, workbench, open-source, taxonomy, workflow

Matthew Yoder