I have been thinking for some time about how this then fits into our existing ecosystem of data publishing and use. I tried some time ago to articulate what our community looks like through this image created in Prezi resulting from an early BCoN data integration exercise - BCoN diagram2 by Andrew Bentley. However, the more I think about it, the more I like the analogy of a tree in this image
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The roots are the data providers (collections in most cases). These then feed into a data store. Currently we have a multi-trunked tree where each aggregator holds its own cache of the data which results in multiple different copies of the same data. Ideally we need to move towards a single data store that it not owned by any of the aggregators but is a stand-alone store and is described by the Digital Extended Specimen transactional concept described in @hardistyar and @nickyn diagrams above. This would provide a single access point for data coming from the collections below and would act as a broker for validating and storing unique identifiers for objects as well as the integration of linkages to other objects related to it coming from numerous different sources. The aggregators are then the branches of the tree and act as a filter and UI on the data store providing data to the leaves of the tree which are the end-users of the data. The aggregators can innovate and alter their UI to represent the data in numerous different ways to the end-user community but the datastore is always the authority for the data. As @waddink mentions, there would need to be a layer of abstraction on this data store to allow for the hiding of certain data behind a gatekeeper of sorts (threatened and endangered species, obscuring lats, and longs for paleo collections, etc.) and the key to that gate could be provided to validate users who need access. Other sources of data (taxonomic authorities, Genbank, Isobank, etc.) could also be linked to the data source in various ways. @dshorthouse roles and responsibilities work obviously feeds into this descibing who fits in where and what social roles the various actors in this diagram have and should contribute. The social aspect of this is going to be extremely important in that everyone will need to play the same game and agree to this system.