Andy,
Heheh...
All the evidence that I've seen seems to indicate that the
only bits of LOM that get used are those bits already covered
by DC-Education. But with DC you get a highly extensible
underlying model [1], a choice of syntaxes [2] and a globally
unique approach to identifying terms in the metadata using
URIs [3]. So the kind of nonesense above simply does not
arise - well, not often! :-)
Of course we have our own very special strains of nonsense over in
DC-world, carefully cultivated over the years. ;-)
Newcomer: "So the creator of a resource must by definition also be a
contributor, right? So dc:creator is a subproperty of dc:contributor. It
must be, given your definitions."
DC-Veteran: "'Subproperty', eh? That's what we call refinement round
here, right? Oooh, no, lad, you couldn't possibly say that."
Newcomer: "But 'An entity primarily responsible for making the content'
is also 'An entity responsible for making contributions to the content',
right? If they are 'primarily' doing it they must also be
'contributing', by definition."
DC-Veteran: "That's as may be, lad, but we couldn't possibly say it was
a refinement. Ooooh, no. We'd end up with 14 elements in Simple DC
then."
Newcomer: "No, I don't think so, you could still define dc:creator as
part of Simple DC if you wanted and -"
DC-Veteran (puzzled): "Oooh no, nothing in Simple DC refines anything
else. They don't 'dumb down'."
Newcomer: "Ah, yes. 'Dumb-down'. Funny expression. That's RDFS
inferencing, right?"
DC-Veteran (frowning): "Aye, if you say so, son."
Newcomer: "But a refinement is a subproperty, and RDFS says subproperty
means -"
DC-Veteran (agitated): "Now, look, sonnie, yer come round here from yer
big city with yer new-fangled talk of 'subproperties' and 'inferencing'
and yer start telling me dc:creator is a refinement of dc:contributor.
Folks don't like that sort of talk round here, d'yer understand? They
don't like it!"
Newcomer: "But RDFS says - "
DC-Veteran (standing and shouting): "I've had enough of yer RDFS this
and yer RDFS that. I've told yer, we DON'T LIKE that sort of talk! It
UPSETS people!"
Newcomer exits hastily and runs off in search of coherent metadata
schema.....
*ducks*
Pete
