On Wed, 25 Oct 2000, Simon Cox wrote:
> Andy Powell wrote:
> >
> ...
> > 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.
>
> I prefer a slightly different reading: the name of the creator is an
> *identifier* of the related resource. We even find that names usually
> follow some encoding rules, although they are typically not as formal
> as other identifiers, such as URL's, that we commonly use (except in
> France, perhaps :-).
A quick response... I remember this discussion and the arguments for
treating a name as an identifier. I even used to believe it. I'm no
longer convinced... a personal or corporate name does *not* function as
an identifier and can not be encoded and used in the same way that
identifiers can be encoded and used.
The other problem is that the value of the Creator, Contributor and
Publisher elements in unqualified DC may be anything - it is a text field.
So I would regularly put
Andy Powell - [log in to unmask]
as a value for dc:creator. That value is, in some sense, even less like a
identifier than plain 'Andy Powell' is. However, that value is perfectly
acceptable as the 'default' rdf:value in the description of me (a person).
Andy
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