This is a comment/suggestion on the current 'Using Dublin Core in XML'
working draft. It is slightly 'off the wall'... but I thought I'd share
it anyway!
The syntax proposed in the working draft is based on the RDF model.
The RDF model forces/encourages us to be rigorous in thinking about what
is actually being described in any particular RDF assertion.
The proposed syntax places the value of the dc:creator, dc:publisher and
dc:contributor properties directly within <dc:creator>, <dc:publisher> and
<dc:contributor> tags.
Typically, the value of these properties is a name.
However...
The name of the creator is *not* a property of the resource being
described. It is a property of an 'agent' (a person or organisation) that
is related to the resource.
We should model this correctly in the RDF description.
Therefore, our simple description should take the form
<dc:creator>
<dct:Agent>
<rdf:value>Dave Beckett</rdf:value>
</dct:Agent>
</dc:creator>
(I hope I've got the syntax correct here!? I may have got the details
wrong).
This is a more correct modelling of what we want to say. It also has the
advantage that the move from this syntax to more complex descriptions that
include, for example, vCard or 'DC-Agent' properties, will be more
straight-forward. For example,
<dc:creator>
<dct:Agent>
<vcard:fn>Dave Beckett</vcard:fn>
<vcard:org>ILRT</vcard:org>
<rdf:value>Dave Beckett</rdf:value>
</dct:Agent>
</dc:creator>
I'm sure that there won't be much support for this proposal... but I'm
interested in comments anyway!
Andy
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