> From [log in to unmask] Thu Nov 28 05:58 PST 1996
> On Wed, 27 Nov 1996, John Kunze wrote:
> > The needs of Indexers will be different from those of Searchers and those
> > of the Providers.
>
> I'd like to see some reasoning as to why these groups should have
> different needs from DC. To my mind, the Indexers are providing a service
> to the Searchers and so they'd better make sure that their use of metadata
> data ties into the needs of the Searchers (ie is the same if possible).
You're right about the Indexers (Altavista, Lycos, etc.) providing a
service, but because they're not better represented in the meta2 group,
we have to sell DC to them as if they were an audience. I'll put in a
plug now to support Stuart in getting them to the next meeting.
I'm especially concerned about the Indexer "audience", because they
have non-obvious needs that we know little about. At the Boston W3C
workshop, for example, we learned that Lycos was unlikely to be able
to guarantee preservation of element order within records; this has
a profound impact on any of our plans to assign significance to element
order. Similarly, Benjamin Franz's message (from the robots mailing list,
posted to meta2 Oct 15), even if somewhat extreme, indicates that there
is some sentiment among Indexers that external schemas in DC won't work.
We ignore Indexers at our peril. I don't like admitting it, but we
need them more than they need us.
-John
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