There have been noisy discussions about this in the past. "Dublin
Core" is problematic as a name, but we're stuck with it.
The issue is whether "the Dublin Core" is a well-known set of fifteen
"core" elements printed on tee-shirts, or whether "Dublin Core" has in
fact turned into a generic brand name that can and should be stamped
onto other products of this process, such as technical specs,
qualifiers, controlled vocabularies, and various other "non-core"
elements.
I have always come down very strongly on the side of seeing "the Dublin
Core" as that small set of "core" elements, even if that set may evolve
a bit over time. Using the string "DCMI" has the advantage of not
implying "coreness" or muddying the identity of "the Dublin Core". For
the past year, at any rate, DCMI has been using "DCMI" pretty
consistently in the names of working groups, in press releases, and on
the Web site. I take your point about future organizations controlling
the namespace but do not see this as a major problem.
Tom
On Mon, 11 Jun 2001, Aaron Swartz wrote:
> Thomas Baker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > 2) http://purl.org/dc/terms/ - "Dublin Core terms" (no!)
>
> I understand that there is a lot of confusion over DC vs. DCMI, etc.
> However, I personally feel that keeping the purl.org/dc/ is important for
> consistency and understandability. As others have said, Dublin Core has
> become a "brand name" -- DCMI has not. People understand what DC and Dublin
> Core are -- in fact, the DCMI website is at dublincore.org.
>
> In addition to that, there is another distinction I see. Dublin Core is a
> concept -- an idea. DCMI is an organization. The Dublin Core terms will live
> on long after the DCMI is gone. In fact, it is possible that in the future a
> new organization will take control of the creation of Dublin Core terms, in
> which case they should have an appropriate namespace.
>
> Please, let's just leave it at DC.
>
> --
> [ Aaron Swartz | [log in to unmask] | http://www.aaronsw.com ]
>
>
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