Here is something I have put together to consider in the 
discussion on resource types. It builds on Ron Daniels work.
I looked at my own website and a couple of others and
thought about how one might best describe the contents
of the various pages. I think this list would cover most
electronic objects, most of the time. I've tended to 
characterize according to the apparent purpose of the
document.

My take on this is to have few "big" genres of documents
which can be refined into subclasses. Is this the right
way to get at this? 

The danger seems to me to be continuing to refine these
classes/genres into so many categories that they become
functionally useless.

Whatever is decided, I think a simple set of values
that will serve the greatest good for the greatest 
number should be the place to start. Only a statement
of principle, but please don't ask me to defend it! :-)

Also, is Meta2 the place to carry on this discussion about 
values for various elements? Or should another forum be 
considered for this discussion? Just curious.

-terry


VALUES FOR "TYPE" ELEMENT (DRAFT)
---------------------------------

I. DOCUMENT (A work that is mostly textual in nature, 
but may include images, maps, tables, or inclusion in 
other formats)

DOCUMENT.HOMEPAGE
Toplevel page for a person, company or organization.

DOCUMENT.INDEX
Document intended to provide an index to services
or documents within a website, or some subset of 
documents.

DOCUMENT.DICTIONARY       
Document consisting of an organized list of terms 
and their definitions.

DOCUMENT.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Document consisting of an organized list of 
references to other resources, either in 
print or electronic form.

DOCUMENT.CORRESPONDANCE
Includes email, USENET, letters, messaging.

DOCUMENT.SERIES          
Document describing or listing a series of related 
documents.

DOCUMENT.BOOK
Objects where the cumulative contents are of 
significant volume that an author would consider 
the contents as a book; printed version rather than 
online viewing is strongly implied as implicit 
the primary form for use.

DOCUMENT.ARTICLE
Objects where the contents are of such length
and/or self-contained in subject matter that
the author would consider this as an article.
The purpose of the contents is to fully realize
a particular objective in a relatively concise
form. Also implied is that the document exists
within the context of a collection of other
articles which are made available serially.
        
DOCUMENT.ABSTRACT
A summarization of another document.
      
DOCUMENT.SCREED
An informal piece of writing; fragment or other
type of personal discourse.

DOCUMENT.THESIS
A scholarly document prepared to meet the graduation
requirements of an academic program, which 
includes dissertations and theses.

DOCUMENT.TOPICAL
A short document intended to provide general
information on a single topic or subject, i.e.
a pamphlet of the sort that public agencies 
give out.

DOCUMENT.PROMOTION
Primary purpose of document is to promote or provide
information about a product or service, i.e. advertising.

DOCUMENT.BIOGRAPHY
Primary purpose of the document is to provide information
about a person or persons.

DOCUMENT.HELPFILE
Includes manuals or other pages intended to provide assistance for 
software/hardware.

DOCUMENT.NAVIGATION
The primary purpose is to provide a gateway or form
interface to local or remote navigation services.

DOCUMENT.FORM
A form of some type, i.e. comments, survey, order requiring
input of a user.




II. STILLS (IMAGES) (Characterized by pictures which no motion or 
    dynamic changes are implicit in the form)

IMAGE.2D
Photograph, drawing, or other 2D dimensional representation.

IMAGE.MODEL
A 3D representation that is captured as a still form.

IMAGE.SCORE
Representation of a musical score 

IMAGE.MAP
Representation of cartographic informtion.


III. MOTION PICTURE (Characterized by images in which 
some dynamic or movement features are implicit in the 
file. Include animations,video, VR, 3D model animations)

MOTION.ANIMATION
MOTION.VIDEO
MOTION.VR
MOTION.3DMODEL


IV. SOUND (captures all sound formats including MIDI files)

SOUND.AMBIENT
SOUND.MUSIC
SOUND.SPEECH
SOUND.BROADCAST


V. SOFTWARE (binary executables and source code)

SOFTWARE.EXECUTABLE
SOFTWARE.SOURCE


VI. DATASET (alpha-numeric collections of data)

DATA.SPREADSHEET
DATA.STATISTICAL
DATA.CARTOGRAPHIC
DATA.BIBLIOGRAPHIC







---------------------------------------------------------------

Mr. Terry Kuny                  Phone: 819-776-6602   
XIST Inc./                      Email: [log in to unmask]
Global Village Research         URL:   http://xist.com/kuny/

Snail: Box 1141, St. B, Hull, Quebec, Canada

---------------------------------------------------------------