Re: [dxwg] Profile negotiation [RPFN]

Rob's example above is what I would call the output from a "cross-walk" - data is converted from some database or metadata schema to another, and these schemas, in some cases, may be application profiles depending on their contents and functionality. It isn't clear to me if every use of metadata is a profile, however, so referring to profiles in the conneg work may not meet our definition of "profile", which is not (AFAIK) "any metadata schema." And not including non-profile metadata schemas may not satisfy the needs of conneg. We are going to have to spend some time on definitions. Note that we have (so far) defined profiles as:

A <dfn>profile</dfn> is a named set of constraints on one or more identified base specifications,
      including the identification of any implementing subclasses of datatypes,
      semantic interpretations, vocabularies, options and parameters of those base specifications
necessary to accomplish a particular function.

I think this is more restrictive than "arbitrary metadata schema".

Wanting to serve the same data using a different metadata schema has the reputation of being lossy (in terms of absolute semantics). Rob says: "a different URI would mean a different concept." But I'm not so sure that we aren't talking about different concepts, although I realize that this becomes philosophical at a point. I believe this is what is bothering @agreiner. These are different datasets. That doesn't mean that you can't give an identifier to your data in all of its forms, but the same data served with different metadata schemas as a result of a conversion process is indeed a different dataset. But what is really troubling me is the use of "profile". 

(I know that "schema" isn't a great word to use here - substitute "model" or whatever you prefer if it bothers you.)

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Received on Thursday, 21 June 2018 22:34:41 UTC