Dear all,

I am working through Beth's meeting notes line-by-line.  In the
meantime, here is the revised statement of mission and principles.
Please read it through carefully and drop me a line with any comments
you may have.

Tom

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DCMI USAGE BOARD: MISSION AND PRINCIPLES

Version: Tue Jun 12 11:37:23 MET DST 2001

MISSION

The mission of the DCMI Usage Board is to ensure an orderly evolution
of metadata vocabularies grounded in grammatical principle.  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 (to be completed)

[1] Process document URL
[2] DCMES URL
[3] Grammar paper, once it has been copied to DCMI Web site
[4] Namespace policy document, when available
[5] User's Guide

_______________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Thomas Baker                                            [log in to unmask]
GMD Library
Schloss Birlinghoven                                           +49-2241-14-2352
53754 Sankt Augustin, Germany                              fax +49-2241-14-2619