I like your TaxonWorks platform. It feels like an important step towards a general empirical research infrastructure, eg the basic framework seems like it might be applicable in numerous non-bio fields, from (say) geology to sociology.

Thanks, that's nice to hear. There are certainly generalizations that have arrisen, we're not building this out of thin air but with reference to a lot of work done over decades (semantics, standards, pre-existing tools). It's open source, there is significant infrastructure there that could be grabbed and re-factored or extended to meet other needs. Of course the whole project is also a test of the oft stated, rarely proven "open-source it and people will join/contribute" too ;).