From: Peter Graham, Rutgers University Libraries
I think Terry Allen has put the case very well against trying to assign
numeric values to the element names: there is a serious linguistic argument
against doing so as it implies an exact equivalence between terms which in
fact may be different (issues of authorial responsibility have already been
noted). We need to recognize the distinctions rather than Procrusteanly make
them equivalent. (I might add that using numbers instead of names
simply makes the elements harder to work with; if we want relatively
unsophisticated users to use the DC we need to help them, not put
barriers in the way.)
This is not to say however that language should be ignored in the
construction of the Core elements. In our Anglophone environment (and I take
the point that at the moment English is the lingua franca, as it were) it
makes sense to define terms in English. But we need to recognize that there
are both technical and political reasons to go beyond that.
a. technical: cultures other than our own anglophone ones are bound to be
creating DC elements and there is no reason why they should be restricted to
English (see b, below). If so, the search engines and webcrawlers need to
recognize the elements when they see them. We need to define a way for that
to be done.
b. political: on the one hand it is offensive to assume that all Europe and
Asia needs to work with English only in this environment which allows tools
to convert and match so easily in automated ways. On the other hand it is a
waste of time and energy to require that non-anglophones do so. We need to
think far enough ahead to allow multilingual constructions.
How to do this?
a. keep elements in natural language.
b. provide a means of indicating which language is in use for the
elements; English is a perfectly acceptable default.
How to indicate language? See the next episode, subject-tagged
META-ELEMENT. --pg
Peter Graham [log in to unmask] Rutgers University Libraries
169 College Ave., New Brunswick, NJ 08903 (908)445-5908; fax(908)445-5888
<URL:http://aultnis.rutgers.edu/pghome.html>
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