Dear all,
Attached at the end of this message is an appendix showing
which attributes have been used to describe DCMI terms
since 1996. Based on these sets of attributes, and in light
of current discussion on this list, I suggest here a set of
attributes for "DCMI term declarations" and suggest that a "See
Also" link point to further background information collected
by the Usage Board as documentation for new-term proposals.
I am currently working on the long-awaited Consolidated Term
Declaration (or perhaps Dictionary) that brings DCMES 1.1,
the Dublin Core Qualifiers, and the terms approved by Usage
Board in 2001 into one document using a consistent set of
attributes. Finishing that task depends on resolving the
problem discussed here.
I would appreciate if some of you could give this a careful
read from various points of view -- Usage Board, Registry,
and Architecture (eg, RDF schemas). A caveat: I have not
tested this by formatting all of the DCMI terms yet --
uh, I'd rather get consensus on the attributes first...
In particular, I'm not very happy with the jargon for "name of
term", "namespace URI of term", and "URI of term's namespace".
The consolidated term document will supersede all previous
documents and become the definitive declaration of DCMI terms
and therefore the basis for any machine-understandable
representations thereof.
I would also like to hear opinions on where this set of
attributes should reside -- perhaps in a special Usage Board
document, though it is not clear to me that the Usage Board
should be the group to maintain the schema attributes.
Also, I cite what I see as the major documents setting the
context for this set of attributes:
http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-namespace/
http://dublincore.org/usage/documents/process/
http://dublincore.org/usage/documents/mission/
Am I overlooking any?
I propose:
------------start-----------------------------------------------
A "DCMI term declaration" (see
http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-namespace/) should contain:
Label The human-readable label assigned to
the qualifier.
Definition The definition of the term.
- or -
A statement that represents the concept
and essential nature of the term.
Comment Additional information associated with
the term.
- or -
Information concerning the possible
application of the proposed term
See Also A link to more information about the term.
Name of term The unique token assigned to the term
URI of terms's eg, http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/ or
namespace http://purl.org/dc/terms/
Namespace URI of term eg, http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/title or
http://purl.org/dc/terms/audience
Status Cross-Domain, Domain-Specific, or Obsolete
(typology to be taken from
http://dublincore.org/usage/documents/process)
Type of term Element, Element Refinement, or Encoding Scheme
(typology to be taken from
http://dublincore.org/usage/documents/mission/)
Term qualified If an Element Refinement, the Element qualified
One "See Also" link should point to the following
Examples Examples of use of the proposed term, making
clear what type of literal values are expected
Why needed A justification of the need for the proposed term
Related DCMI terms A discussion of possible overlap with existing
terms
Related non-DCMI An annotated listing of related terms in non-DCMI
terms metadata vocabularies
Impact on An annotated listing of existing applications that
applications could be affected by recognition of this term
About the proposers A pointer to a description, in standard
form (to be specified) of the working group or
organization putting forward the proposal: its
scope, aims, a brief history, current status,
and a pointer to archives.
As per Roland's suggestion, the "namespace URI of term" should
not be a "clickable" link on any Web pages made from this term
declaration to avoid the usual questions about "what is at the
end of the namespace".
------------end-----------------------------------------------
Thanks,
Tom
APPENDIX
-------------------------------------------------------------
Elements Version 1.0, September 1998
http://dublincore.org/documents/1998/09/dces/
and
RFC 2413, September 1998
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2413.txt
-------------------------------------------------------------
Except for "Label", the attributes of the metadata terms were
not explicitly labelled or discussed in Version 1.0 or RFC 2413.
[Name?] a natural-language name for the element
Label: a "formal single-word label" for use in
"encoding schemes"
[Definition?] a definition was provided
-------------------------------------------------------------
Elements Version 1.1
http://dublincore.org/documents/1999/07/02/dces/
-------------------------------------------------------------
This version recast the element definitions using attributes
defined in ISO/IEC 11179:
Name The label assigned to the data element
Identifier The unique identifier assigned to the data element
Definition A statement that clearly represents the concept and
essential nature of the data element
Comment A remark concerning the application of the data element
The following ISO/IEC 11179 attributes were assumed to hold for
all of the elements:
Version The version of the data element, here "1.1" (for all)
Registration The entity authorised to register the data element,
Authority here "Dublin Core Metadata Initiative" (for all)
Language The language in which the data element is specified,
here "en" (for all)
Obligation Indicates if the data element is required to always
or sometimes be present (contain a value), here
"Optional" (for all)
Datatype Indicates the type of data that can be represented
in the value of the data element, here
"Character String" (for all)
Maximum Indicates any limit to the repeatability of the data
Occurrence element, here "Unlimited" (always)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dublin Core Qualifiers, July 2000
http://dublincore.org/documents/2000/07/11/dcmes-qualifiers/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The introduction explained that the properties of qualifiers --
in particular the terms Name and Label -- differed with respect
to those defined for the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set
Version 1.1, reflecting a decision to bring Dublin Core schema
terminology in line with terminology in the XML community to
promote easier integration of Dublin Core schemas in XML and RDF
environments.
Name The unique token assigned to the qualifier.
Label The human-readable label assigned to the qualifier.
Definition A statement that represents the concept and essential
nature of the qualifier.
Comment Additional information associated with the qualifier
(if available).
See Also A link to more information about the qualifier (if
available).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Current requirements for new-term proposals to Usage Board
http://128.253.121.110/DC-UB/DC-UBprocess8.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name A suggested unique token for use in encodings
Label A suggested human-readable label for the proposed term
Definition The definition of the term
Comment Information concerning the possible application of the
proposed term
Examples Examples of use of the proposed term, making clear what
type of literal values are expected
Type of term Is the proposed term an "element," or an "element
refinement" (as defined in
http://dublincore.org/usage/documents/mission.shtml)
[NOTE: Encoding schemes will be registered using a
separate process]
Term qualified If the proposed term is a element refinement, which term
does it qualify?
Why needed A justification of the need for the proposed term
Proposed status Is the term proposed as Domain-Specific or Cross-Domain?
Related DCMI terms A discussion of possible overlap with existing terms
Related non-DCMI An annotated listing of related terms in non-DCMI
terms metadata vocabularies
Impact on An annotated listing of existing applications that
applications could be affected by recognition of this term
About the proposers A pointer to a description, in standard
form (to be specified) of the working group or
organization putting forward the proposal: its scope,
aims, a brief history, current status, and a pointer
to archives.
--
Dr. Thomas Baker [log in to unmask]
Institutszentrum Schloss Birlinghoven mobile +49-171-408-5784
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft work +49-30-8109-9027
53754 Sankt Augustin, Germany fax +49-2241-14-2619
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