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Subject: RE: [office] Discussion Requested: ODF <dc:creator> conflicts
Michael, 1. WHY THE GUIDELINES ARE BETTER It is important to cite the Guidelines for use in XML because what we are doing is using Dublin Core in XML (not RDF, the primary application of Dublin Core for the Semantic Web). The DCMI XML Guidelines document makes sufficient reference to the semantics and other aspects of the Dublin Core Element Set 1.1 (and later ones), so it is an appropriate way to be specific about the ODF reliance on Dublin Core in elements like <dc:creator>. If, instead, we cite and link to the current DCES page, there is no longer any indication of the use in XML. In fact, DCMI seems to have walked away from use of the DCMI Namespace as an XML Namespace. 2. THE GUIDELINES ARE WHAT NEED TO BE PROFILED Because the Guidelines for XML Use of the Dublin Core are just that, Guidelines, it is also important to say which of the numbered Recommendations are being honored in the ODF usage by reference and (perhaps) which ones are not incorporated by reference. We can do that by making reference to the Guidelines and providing additional statements somewhere about the use of Dublin Core metadata (more than the statement at the beginning of section 3 of ODF 1.1 and in section 3.3.1 of ODF 1.2 cd01-rev01). 3. CLEANING UP <dc:creator> It is also important, in applying the DC element definition for "creator" to specify what the "resource" is in each case, although I think your restatement would do it, although I propose this modification: "The <dc:creator> element *signifies an entity that created the current document instance* (*in* <office:meta>), *that* created *the* annotation (*in an* <office:annotation>), *that* created *the* change (*in an* <office:change-info>)." Note that I have used "created" in every case, which narrows the murkiness a little. I do note that Dublin Core uses "entity" with forethought and I have restored that. Although the DCMI Guidelines deal with multiple occurrences of the same element in a record, I believe the ODF schema only provides for that in <office:meta> and makes the interpretation (and creation) of multiple occurrences implementation-dependent. 4. WHAT SIGNIFIES AN ENTITY, SUCH AS A PERSON? I concur with Rob, that any specification here fails to be normative, in the verifiable conformance sense. There is no stated, testable condition by which an element whose content is a string shall signify some sort of entity, including a person. In this regard, there is not that much help in the DCMI proviso that "typically, the name of a Creator should be used to indicate the entity." (Notice the proper noun, "Creator.") This suggests to me that the string is typically presentable as human-meaningful text, but it is hard to be any more precise than that equally-vague provision. Perhaps we can go so far as to state that "The <dc:creator> element's string value *should* be presentable as human-readable text." although we have no way to deal with human-language issues here. Is there a better term than "human-readable" that works here? - Dennis -----Original Message----- From: Michael.Brauer@Sun.COM [mailto:Michael.Brauer@Sun.COM] Sent: Thursday, April 02, 2009 00:14 To: dennis.hamilton@acm.org Cc: Rob Weir; ODF TC List Subject: Re: [office] Discussion Requested: ODF <dc:creator> conflicts Hi Dennis, On 04/02/09 02:49, Dennis E. Hamilton wrote: > Wonderful! > > We need to refer to that. It is very important that we refer to that and > not other DCMI documents, because DCMI has removed the XML provision from > its latest DCMI Namespace policy. Well, this document does describe how DCMI should be used within XML, and therefore explains why ODF is using DCMI in the way it is using it. But is this what we should refer to in the ODF specification? Isn't the specification we have to cite here the one that describes the semantics of elements, and isn't this http://www.dublincore.org/documents/dces/ that is, the one we are citing right now? [ ... ] DCMI here says that the creator is "An entity primarily responsible for making the resource." [ ... ] Anyway, if we want to provide a clarification, then my suggestion would be to remove the note entirely, and to change the normative text to: "The <dc:creator> element specifies the name of the person who *created the current document instance* (<office:meta>), who created an annotation (<office:annotation>), who authored a change (<office:change-info>)" Best regards Michael -- Michael Brauer, Technical Architect Software Engineering StarOffice/OpenOffice.org Sun Microsystems GmbH Nagelsweg 55 D-20097 Hamburg, Germany michael.brauer@sun.com http://sun.com/staroffice +49 40 23646 500 http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS Sitz der Gesellschaft: Sun Microsystems GmbH, Sonnenallee 1, D-85551 Kirchheim-Heimstetten Amtsgericht Muenchen: HRB 161028 Geschaeftsfuehrer: Thomas Schroeder, Wolfgang Engels, Dr. Roland Boemer Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrates: Martin Haering
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