Dear all,
In the most recent EC call, we decided to submit the Usage Board mission
and process to the AC for review and approval "as soon as possible". I have
attached the latest draft of the Mission and Principles below for a final
check. Diane has taken all comments into consideration and (I believe) is
converting http://128.253.121/110/DC-UB/DC-UBprocess3.html into a different
text format.
I will be out of my office for four weeks starting today and would like
to set this into motion -- whenever Diane says the process document is
ready, Makx can announce it. I suggest that Makx post these for review
with something like the following note from me:
At the meeting in Madeira, February 2001, the attending members
of the Advisory Committee approved the re-constitution of the
old Usage Committee as a smaller Usage Board, the goal of which
would be to meet twice per year face-to-face and review
proposals for metadata term semantics in a timely, principled,
and well-documented manner. The head of this group (myself, at
present) and its members are appointed by the Directorate. Its
current members are:
Andy Powell
Diane Hillmann
Haruki Nagata
Rebecca Guenther
Roland Schwaenzl
Stuart Sutton
Tom Baker
Traugott Koch
We held a first meeting on 21-22 May at OCLC in Dublin to
discuss mission and principles, process, and some proposals for
new metadata terms. We are now asking the AC to review and
approve our statement of mission and principles [1], our
process [2], and (implicitly) our first decisions on term
semantics [see 3].
Many thanks,
Tom
[1] URL of Mission and Principles document
[2] URL of Process document
[3] http://dublincore.org/groups/usage/ -- MEETING DELIVERABLES, ONCE BETH HAS FINISHED IT
-----------------
DCMI USAGE BOARD: MISSION AND PRINCIPLES
Version: Thu Jun 28 08:34:39 MET DST 2001
MISSION
The mission of the DCMI Usage Board is to ensure an orderly evolution
of metadata vocabularies. The Usage Board evaluates proposed
vocabulary terms (or changes to existing terms) in light of grammatical
principle, semantic clarity, and overlap with existing terms. To
proposals that are accepted it assigns a specific status. The Usage
Committee strives for consensus, justifying its decisions and
interpretations in terms both of principle and of empirical practice.
PUBLICATION POLICY
The Usage Board makes available its proceedings and decisions in a
publicly available space on the DCMI Web site.
PROCESS
The Usage Board process is described in a separate document [1].
SCOPE
The scope of the Usage Board is the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set
[2], plus additional vocabulary terms deemed useful for discovering
resources across domains.
GRAMMAR
Dublin Core may be seen as a small language for making a particular
class of statements about resources. Like natural languages, it has a
vocabulary of word-like terms, the two classes of which -- elements and
qualifiers -- function within statements like nouns and adjectives; and
it has a syntax for arranging elements and qualifiers into statements
according to a simple pattern. Optional qualifiers may make the
meaning of a property more definite, as in "Resource has dc:date
dcq:revised '2000-06-13'." This grammar is described more fully in
[3].
VOCABULARY TERMS IN GENERAL
Vocabulary terms in Dublin Core refer to elements, qualifiers, or terms
in controlled vocabularies maintained by DCMI. Vocabulary terms are
uniquely defined in namespaces [4].
Strictly speaking, a Dublin Core element or qualifier is a unique
identifier formed by a name (e.g., title) prefixed by the URI of the
namespace in which it is defined, as in
http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/title. In this context, a namespace is
a vocabulary that has been formally published, usually on the Web; it
describes elements and qualifiers with natural-language labels,
definitions, and other relevant documentation.
ELEMENTS
An element is a property of a resource.
QUALIFIERS
Qualifiers modify the properties of Dublin Core statements by
specifying, in the manner of natural-language adjectives, "what kind"
of subject, date, or relation. Qualifiers currently fall into two
classes:
-- Element Refinement. An element refinement is a qualifier that makes
the meaning of an element narrower or more specific. A refined
element shares the meaning of the unqualified element, but with a
more restricted scope. A client that does not understand a specific
element refinement term should be able to ignore the qualifier and
treat the metadata value as if it were an unqualified (broader)
element. The definitions of element refinement terms for qualifiers
must be publicly available.
-- Encoding Scheme. Encoding schemes are pointers to contextual
information or parsing rules that aid in the interpretation of
an element value. These schemes include controlled
vocabularies and formal notations or parsing rules. A value
expressed using an encoding scheme will thus be a token
selected from a controlled vocabulary (e.g., a term from a
classification system or set of subject headings) or a string
formatted in accordance with a formal notation (e.g.,
"2000-01-01" as the standard expression of a date). If an
encoding scheme is not understood by a client or agent, the
value may still be useful to a human reader. The definitive
description of an encoding scheme for qualifiers must be
clearly identified and available for public use.
DUMB-DOWN PRINCIPLE
The qualification of Dublin Core properties is guided by a rule known
colloquially as the Dumb-Down Principle. According to this rule, a
client should be able to ignore any qualifier and use the value as if
it were unqualified. While this may result in some loss of specificity,
the remaining element value (minus the qualifier) must continue to be
generally correct and useful for discovery. Qualification is therefore
supposed only to refine, not extend the semantic scope of a property.
APPROPRIATE VALUES
Best practice for a particular element or qualifier may vary by
context. Definitions may provide some guidance; other information may
be found in the User's Guide [5].
REFERENCES
[1] [Process document URL]
[2] http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/
[3] http://dublincore.org/groups/usage/meetings/dublin-20010521/grammar.shtml
[4] http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-namespace/
[5] http://dublincore.org/documents/usageguide/
_______________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Thomas Baker [log in to unmask]
GMD Library
Schloss Birlinghoven +49-2241-14-2352
53754 Sankt Augustin, Germany fax +49-2241-14-2619
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