On Fri, 16 Jul 2004, Gerry Graham wrote:
> I feel the original intention of the UK LOM Core is being lost somewhere in
> the discussion, perhaps the number of mandatory elements is too many but to
> argue as little as two is to miss the point of it in the first place.
>
> The initial need was identified to allow the players in the UK education
> arena to be able to meaningfully exchange information about learning
> resources across all the sectors involved.
I accept this. My concern is that by *mandating* things you may actually
end up reducing the level of 'meangingful exchange' by forcing people to
supply a value where none exists, or where the value is unknown.
To maximise the level of 'meaningful exchange' we may find it is better to
- strongly encourage the use of a particular set of elements
- strongly encourage (or perhaps even mandate) a particular set of rules
for formulating the values of those elements (cataloguing guidelines)
- but ultimately leave enough flexibility that people can decide when
it is appropriate to use an element and when it is inappropriate.
I would argue that this approach may actually deliver better
interoperability than a system that *mandates* the use of a particular set
of elements.
Andy
--
Distributed Systems, UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK
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