On Thu, Sep 30, 2004 at 10:23:41AM +0300, Patrick Stickler wrote:
> > OK, but I think Tom is arguing hard that DCMI has said in the
> > Namespace
> > Policy document that
> >
> > <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
> >
> > (with trailing slash) denotes the vocabulary. Yes, they
> > actually said it is
> > a "DCMI Namespace" but they _meant_ what RDF calls a vocabulary, and
> > shouldn't change course now.
>
> Well, if it trully is the common understanding that that URI
> denotes the vocabulary, rather than some XML namespace, then
> I agree it could be a bit difficult to back up and change
> direction a bit.
>
> Though, I think DCMI and its users would be better off in the
> long run if the present statement that "http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
> is a "namespace" simply means that it functions as an XML namespace
> name, but no commitment is made regarding its actual denotation.
The Namespace Policy is vague in this regard. IMO it could be
interpreted to mean that a DCMI Namespace is what RDF calls
a vocabulary. Pete correctly summarized my understanding of
that position above.
Alternatively, one could perhaps say that a DCMI Namespace is a
string used in the algorithm for generating the URI reference
for a new DCMI term at the moment that new term is created
(DCMI Namespace URI + Name = URI reference). This could be
what is meant by "using the mechanism" of XML Namespaces
for identifying DCMI terms (the analogous algorithm being
something like XML Namespace URI + (QName - Prefix)?).
If we were to take this stance, then the Namespace
Policy would need to be carefully revised to separate
out the notion of vocabulary-as-term-set both from
the notion of schema-as-set-of-statements and from
namespace-as-string-for-syntactic-uses (and DCMI Namespaces
would be the latter, the "syntactic use" being the
once-for-all-time creation of a URI reference).
Tom
--
Dr. Thomas Baker [log in to unmask]
Institutszentrum Schloss Birlinghoven mobile +49-160-9664-2129
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