This is an attempt to resume a thread (RENAME "OTHERAGENT" ELEMENT)
that got a little tangled. Quoting from the DC workshop report:
"OtherAgents" are the persons or organizations other than authors
or publishers who have made significant intellectual contributions
to the work.
If we want to invite this "OtherAgent" label/name into our home (which
I oppose -- the name, that is, not the element), logical consistency
and completeness brings a fearsome consequence in the form of an
unwanted guest. This is because we've implicitly defined OtherAgent's
twin concept (not element), "agent", in an extremely limited way.
By enthroning OtherAgent as above, our official DC position on the
word "agent" is therefore close to:
Agents are the persons or organizations such as authors, publishers,
editors, transcribers, etc. who have made significant intellectual
contributions to the work.
There's no need to paint ourselves into this corner with an interesting
word like "agent" (eg, URA's) that I'm sure we have better uses for.
If the DC spec is supposed to hang together logically, let's find a better
name than "OtherAgent".
-John
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