On 13 May 2005, at 21:34, Lorna Campbell wrote:
> Hi Scott,
>
> You're spending rather a lot of time on this list these days!! You're
> not turning into a closet metadata head are you?
Well, a lot of specs in this space are basically various types of
metadata (in the broader sense), whether the thing described is a
learning resource, or an entity representing a person, course, a blog
post or whatever, so the fundamental issues overlap - this list seems
to be the best place to go into those types of issues.
For example, in the learner information and course description spaces,
we have a similar situation to the LOM vs DC meta-model debate going
on; great big hierarchic specs vs aggregation and specialization of
small sets of terms. I personally like the DC approach better, as it
lends itself more readily to both RDF and object-oriented
representation than hierarchic schemes (as long as the binding doesn't
do silly things with polymorphism, like the 'official' qualified DC
one).
*sigh* I guess I _am_ a bit of a metadata head, it seems :-(
>
>> There is also the argument that once something becomes a standard, its
>> far harder to evolve than a specification. There are pro's and cons
>> to this of course; it does bring stability, but at a cost of
>> flexibility and responsiveness.
>>
>> If LOM was still an IMS spec we could go back and chuck some of the
>> less useful stuff out and replace the DC-like elements with actual
>> imported DC. That would make it a lot easier to handle! No chance of
>> that now, however...
>
> Well that's not entirely true..... I agree with everything you've said
> regarding the pros and cons of standardisation of course. However
> although standards bring stability that doesn't mean they are set in
> stone forever. My understanding of IEEE standards is that they have a
> 5 year life-span, i.e. after 5 years they are open for review and
> potential revision. (Perhaps Dan can correct me if I've got this
> wrong?) Erik has already opened a wiki to gather requirements for "LOM
> next":
> http://ariadne.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/vqwiki-2.5.5/jsp/Wiki?LOMnext
5 years!!!! Won't that be a bit late?
In 5 years, we won't be studying using computers, our computers will be
studying how to use us ;-)
- S
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