It is of more than historical interest to re-read the story that
Alistair started to develop in the context of the DCAM discussion
five years ago. Here are some excerpts; more to follow in the next
posting...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://dublincore.org/architecturewiki/GraphMetadata
Graph-based Metadata
This is an experimental area, discussing the feasibility and potential
value of construction of a metadata architecture on top of a relatively
simple graph-model.
Put simply, a metadata graph describes how things are related to other
things. It doesn't go any further than that.
Syntactic Interoperability
A simple graph-model could provide an effective abstraction of a number of
different metadata syntaxes, allowing metadata to be virtualised in a
common, standard way.
In other words, a simple graph-model could be used as the basis for an
abstract metadata syntax, providing a foundation for translation
between various concrete metadata syntaxes.
On top of such an abstract syntax, application-specific constraints
could be expressed, capturing the essential requirements of an
"application profile".
Semantic Interoperability
An abstract syntax based on a simple graph-model also provides a firm
foundation for a precise semantics.
A semantics tells you how to merge graphs, i.e. how to merge metadata
from different sources.
A semantics also provides the foundation for layers of
application-specific semantics. These layers then allow metadata to be
"dumbed-down" gracefully, to whatever level is required.
--
Tom Baker <[log in to unmask]>
|