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Project Onboarding

Introduction

Welcome on board!
This page is a guide for everyone who would like to contribute to the Curculionoidea Project on TaxonWorks.

What you could do

TaxonWorks is an excellent tool for you to organize your taxonomic knowledge. Having everything in TaxonWorks can aid your research while also helping the broader community and building a lasting resource.

If you don't want to work in TaxonWorks yourself, you can also just provide data (images, taxonomic lists, specimen/occurrence data from a collection, etc.) and we can integrate it for you. You will be cited/attributed for everything you want to share.

TaxonWorks vs. TaxonPages

TaxonWorks is the software that we use to curate data. It lives on a server and is accessed through your internet browser.
For our project, the instance of TaxonWorks is hosted at https://sfg.taxonworks.org/

TaxonPages is a website that draws data from TaxonWorks' API. It makes data easy to access.
You don't need to care about TaxonPages at all: As you curate data in TaxonWorks, TaxonPages will display everything you add automatically.
For our project, the instance of TaxonPages is hosted at https://catalog.curculionoidea.org.

flowchart TD
    U["`**The weevil project community**`"]
    TW[("`**TaxonWorks**
    Web application with tools to curate biodiversity data`")]
    API{{"`**Open REST API**
    Other software can access data from TaxonWorks via the API`"}}
    TP["`**TaxonPages**
    catalog.curculionoidea.org`"]
    ANY["`**Get creative:**
    You can use the API to access data for your own workflows and projects`"]

    U ==>|enter/curate data| TW
    TW ==>|served openly| API
    API ==> TP
    API --> ANY
Through the API, you can use data from TaxonWorks for your own projects and workflows. For example, you could make a script for your collection database that notifies you when the valid name for a species in your collection changes.

Who is Who

Contact to the weevil project members

You can see the list of contributors to Curculionidae of the World Online at catalog.curculionoidea.org/#/about
We are the ones who curate weevil data in TaxonWorks. Most of us are also part of the Weevil Workers community.
Communication is primarily via email, but we also have a weekly online meeting. If you need to discuss something, please let us know beforehand, as not everyone is participating every week if there are no topics.

Contact to the broader TaxonWorks community

If you need help with TaxonWorks, please ask other members of the weevil community first. We can help with most problems.

The TaxonWorks software, as well as TaxonPages, are developed by the Species File Group (SFG).
The instance of TaxonWorks that the weevil project is using is hosted on the servers of the SFG. The weevil community is not part of the SFG.
Learn more about the collaboration between us (as scientists) and the SFG on the SFG website.
The SFG has a weekly online community consult. There's also the annual conference TaxonWorks Together.

Getting started

  1. Contact WeevilWorkers@gmail.com to get your account for TaxonWorks. If we don't know you yet, you may introduce yourself a bit :)
  2. You will get login credentials for the production instance of TaxonWorks (where the real project data is maintained) as well as for a sandbox, where you can test features without messing with our real dataset.
  3. We suggest you to use the sandbox environment to familiarize yourself with the program. You can also ask us (weevil community members) for assistance. We could also work together with a shared screen if needed.