Seenorganismid

Seenorganismid is a proposed unique identifier framework intended to assign a persistent, machine-readable key to each organism observed in biodiversity data collections. In this concept, a seenorganismid (SOID) would accompany an observation record and would remain stable across data migrations, enabling reliable linkage among taxonomic data, media files, collection metadata, and subsequent analyses.

The design envisions a globally unique identifier that can be generated from observation-specific data (such as date, location, observer, and method) or assigned as a UUID. A SOID would be designed to be human-readable where practical, while remaining robust for programmatic use. The goal is to provide a stable reference that travels with an observation as it is shared among platforms, databases, and research workflows, even if taxonomic names or classifications change over time.

Applications of a seenorganismid include deduplicating records across datasets, enabling precise data linking between observations, specimen records, imaging, and environmental metadata, and supporting reproducible research by allowing automated aggregation of all materials related to a single observed organism. It would also facilitate interoperability in citizen science projects and biodiversity portals by offering a common key for cross-platform queries.

Relation to existing standards is envisioned as complementary rather than substitutive. A SOID would aim to align with existing taxon identifiers (such as those used by ITIS, NCBI Taxonomy, and GBIF), specimen identifiers, and metadata standards like Darwin Core. Implementation would require governance, versioning rules, and clear provenance to address data privacy, quality control, and long-term persistence. As of now, seenorganismid remains a proposed concept under discussion in biodiversity informatics communities.