> -----Original Message-----
> From: DCMI Education Community [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Diane I. Hillmann
> Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 9:35 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: DC-ED AP Model: Draft functional requirements
>
> Phil:
>
> I agree that it is definitely worth stating an over-arching goal in the
> Functional Requirement section of "support the discovery of learning
> resources and activities in order to help meet teaching and learning
> aims." I think all of the more specific FRs (listed here:
> http://dublincore.org/educationwiki/Functional_20Requirements) relate
> to this. As a rule, assuming that this general statement is obvious to
> everyone is really not a good idea!
Diane, I agree that such an assumption is not a good idea. It brings to mind incessant discussions in Usage Board meetings and on other DCMI lists of what constitutes "resource discovery" and what is needed in terms of properties to serve that need and what is not needed. Recall that Dublin Core started out with over-arching goal of "resource discovery"--a goal that has morphed into metadata to support "finding, sharing and management". [1] So, while it may seem obvious on its face what it means, it also represents unnoticed constraints standing alone as an overarching requirement. Is "typical learning time" a useful property in resource discovery? (I am not really looking for an answer, but I can already see people crawling out of the woodwork and already hear ancient discussions around metadata necessary to discovery vs. metadata necessary to choose a particular resource vs. ???)
Now, just because DCMI's broad goal is to support "finding, sharing and managing" doesn't mean the DCEd-AP can't have a narrower purpose of "resource discovery" Is that where we stand? Just asking? It seems to me that we can: (1) recognize the phrasing's constraints and leave it at that; or (2) we can expand the phrasing as an over-arching statement to include more than discovery; or (3) add additional separate requirements to cover other over-arching purposes.
Stuart
[1] http://www.dublincore.org/about-us/
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