Hi all,

 

The idea of making an ancestors’ gallery has taken a quantum leap with Kathryn Hall coming on board and offering her assistance with web design. Kathryn was the main force putting SpongMaps into the Internet (https://www.spongemaps.org/ ). And “force” is an appropriate word here, because she is bubbling over with ideas and energy.

 

So, at this early stage we already need feedback from you for choosing a name, e.g. (or propose your own ideas):

 

WRoSS – World Register of Sponge Scientists

 

PoRe – Poriferologists Register

 

SpoSLeG – Sponge Scientists Legacy Gallery

 

MOSS – Memories on Sponge Scientists 

 

CHELAS – Community Helping Enrich the Legacy of our Ancestors in Spongiology

 

SPICULA – Scientists in Poriferology Interactive Catalogue for United (Unique? Unidivided?) Legacy and Acclaim

 

At the moment we vaguely favour the first two, but nothing is yet decided. I will collect votes or new proposals.

 

At this stage we are thinking about a format with a starting page per person into which all life data are entered, similar to a species page in the WPD. From there links should lead to repositories for CC photos and documents. Latter can e.g. include obituaries, anecdotal memories contributed by colleagues, (restricted) PDFs of publications or links to them. We would attempt to list all publications per person. As data entry will cost a substantial effort, we are debating which parts should be opened up for public entry, similar to Wikipedia.

 

Also, if you have any thoughts on what this database should really be and who should be in it, it may also help us to decide what formats and functions we need to come up with. I think we could go beyond departed scientists and enter more people, while we can still ask them about details? Or that people could even enter their own presently available life data? But should we set boundaries? I don’t know, any person listed needs to have worked at least 5 years (10 years?) in sponge science (as evidenced by regular publications, e.g. at least 1 per year) or needs to have produced a minimum of 20 meaningful sponge-related publications? Who is a dedicated spongiologist? And do we want to restrict this to dedicated ones? Please let me know what you think.

 

Cheers, Christine