Hi Diane,
With reference to the fourth paragraph of [1], you write:
On Sun, Nov 09, 2008 at 03:43:49PM -0500, Diane Hillmann wrote:
> In the fourth paragraph I find the unfamiliar notion of
> "data-engineering aspects." What does this mean? I thought we were
> trying to enable people to figure out how to do this, not scare them
> off! I would just use "aspects" here and dump the off-putting
> terminology. A little further along we encounter the phrase "metadata
> engineering." This sounds to me a result of the same sort of thinking
> that uses "sanitation engineer" to describe the guys who collect garbage
> (and I include women here, since I saw my first female garbage-person
> just last week!) Far more worrisome is the effect that this sort of
> terminology is likely to have on newbies to this environment,
> particularly librarians, who might be likely to see these terms as
> boundaries around what they can be expected to tackle. We can't afford
> that if we want to see this technology proliferate--and I think that's
> what these guidelines can and should do. This is not rocket science,
> and we do ourselves no favors in casting it in that manner.
This is a reference back to the second bullet point at the end of the
Introduction [2], where we say:
It is recommended that application profiles be developed
as team projects involving, at a minimum, both:
* data content specialists, who are knowledgeable
in the resources that need to be described an in the
metadata used in the description of those resources,
and
* data engineers or architects, who understand how to
structure the underlying data for interoperability in
a linked data environment.
The point is that if a profile is to be designed for
interoperability, the task will require some knowledge and
expertise in data modeling -- not necessarily on the part of
"data content specialists", but at least by some members of
the design team.
Can anyone suggest a better way to make this distinction?
Is "data architects" any clearer?
Tom
[1] http://dublincore.org/documents/2008/11/03/profile-guidelines/#sect-5
[2] http://dublincore.org/documents/2008/11/03/profile-guidelines/#sect-1
--
Dr. Thomas Baker <[log in to unmask]>
Director, Specifications and Documentation
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
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