comments: [MM] Prose Improvement

Hi,

This is a QA Review comment for "Image Annotation on the Semantic Web"
http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-swbp-image-annotation-20060322/
Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:50:45 GMT
First WD

The whole document might leverage a lot of interest in the Web  
community because of the trend with online management softwares of  
photography. The public will be broad and not with the same level of  
understanding of W3C Technologies.

We understood that the document might be published as a W3C Note
[[[
After reviewing comments and further feedback, the Working Group may  
publish new versions of this document or may advance the document to  
Working Group Note.
]]]
-- Image Annotation on the Semantic Web
http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-swbp-image-annotation-20060322/
Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:50:45 GMT

I would like to encourage the WG to have a special review and/or the  
help of a technical writer for this document. The technical  
background of the document is solid but sometimes the prose lacks of  
fluidity, even more for a non native reader.


Example: The Abstract section (first sentences of the document)

[[[
Abstract

Many applications that involve multimedia content make use of some  
form of metadata that describe this content. The goals of this  
document are (i) to explain what the advantages are of using Semantic  
Web languages and technologies for the creation, storage,  
manipulation, interchange and processing of image metadata, and (ii)  
to provide guidelines for doing so. The document gives a number of  
use cases that illustrate ways to exploit Semantic Web technologies  
for image annotation, an overview of RDF and OWL vocabularies  
developed for this task and an overview of relevant tools.

]]]

-- Image Annotation on the Semantic Web
http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-swbp-image-annotation-20060322/
Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:50:45 GMT

S

ome paragraphs are also a bit too dense and maybe deserve a bit more  
time in rewriting and reorganization.

Example:

[[[
5. Lack of Syntactic and Semantic Interoperability

Many different file formats and tools for image annotations are  
currently in use. Reusing metadata developed for one set of tools in  
another tool is often hindered by a lack of interoperability. First,  
different tools use different file formats, so tool A may not be able  
to read in the metadata provided by tool B (syntax-level  
interoperability). Solving the problem is relatively easy if the  
inner structure of both file formats are known by developing a  
conversion tool. Second, tool A may assign a different meaning to the  
same annotation as tool B does (semantic interoperability). Solving  
this problem is much harder, and a first step to provide a solution  
is to require that the vocabulary used be explicitly defined for both  
tools.
]]]


What about something like

#############
5. Lack of Syntactic and Semantic Interoperability

There is currently an important variety of file formats and tools for  
image annotations. Lack of interoperability may prevent reusing  
metadata defined with one tool in another one.

  * Syntax-level Interoperability
    Different tools use different file formats, so tool A may not be  
able to read in the metadata provided by tool B. Solving the problem  
is relatively easy if the inner structure of both file formats are  
known by developing a conversion tool.

  * Semantic Interoperability
    Tool A may assign a different meaning to the same annotation as  
tool B does. Solving this problem is much harder. A first step would  
be to explicitly define a vocabulary for both tools.
#############


We had contacts with the W3C Member "Society for Technical  
Communication (STC)" which seems to be more involved in W3C work. I  
have sent an email to see if it's a possible solution if you are  
interested.

Best.


-- 
Karl Dubost - http://www.w3.org/People/karl/
W3C Conformance Manager, QA Activity Lead
   QA Weblog - http://www.w3.org/QA/
      *** Be Strict To Be Cool ***

Received on Tuesday, 18 April 2006 05:47:34 UTC