Re: [emergency] <resourceDesc> (aka Issue #32)

[Art Botterell <acb@incident.com>]

>>"The human readable text describing the type and content of the 
>>resource file"

Two agreements emerged from our conversation Tuesday.  The first was 
that Alan's analogy of an HTML <alt> tag is right on the mark... the 
chief purpose of <resourceDesc> is to benefit folks who can't access 
the resource directly for whatever reason.  Thus the addition of the 
words "human readable."

The second had to do with the scope of that human-readable 
description.  In many cases it will describe both the type and the 
content... e.g., "Map of affected area NE of Anniston, Alabama" or 
"Recent photo of missing 10-year old boy, wearing red T-shirt and 
with short blond hair."   (To say just "Affected area NE of Anniston, 
Alabama" would be a lot less informative, leaving the reader in the 
dark as to whether the resource was a map or a photo or some other 
representation like a GIS shape file.)  Thus the retention of the 
"type and content" language.

Again, the <resourceDesc> is for the benefit of humans, not 
computers.  The <mimeType> element is where we can specify the file 
type in an unambiguous and standard form.

- Art