automatic relationships

[Bruce D'Arcus <bruce.darcus@OpenDocument.us>]

Last week I had an idea that builds on previous discussions about URIs 
and such, and that is that it would enable software to automatically 
track relationships between documents.

E.g. if we accept my argument that resource descriptions should be 
identified with URIs, and this therefore includes document 
descriptions, then we can say that all files upon creation get a UUID 
encoded as a URN. Leave aside for now that an organization might have a 
smart HTTP URI schema they want to use; this would easy enough to adapt 
to that I think.

So, user creates a new ODF document; internal metadata then looks 
something like:

<meta:Document 
rdf:about="urn:uuid:cfa70040-33bf-11db-a98b-0800200c9a66">
   ...
</meta:Document>

OK, let's say that this document is a master document. I don't actually 
know how master documents work in ODF, but in linking a file to a 
document, you could then (automatically) add this link to it:

<dcterms:isPartOf 
rdf:resource="urn:uuid:cfa70040-33bf-11db-a98b-0800200c9a66"/>

What about different versions (say drafts)? Same thing. If you save the 
file with a new file name, it gets a new URI id, and a different 
(automatic) association in the metadata:

<dcterms:isVersionOf 
rdf:resource="urn:uuid:cfa70040-33bf-11db-a98b-0800200c9a66"/>

Finally, what happens if you save out the file to another format (PDF?).

<dcterms:isFormatOf 
rdf:resource="urn:uuid:cfa70040-33bf-11db-a98b-0800200c9a66"/>

Now imagine what sort of workflow and search solutions this could 
enable?

Bruce