RE: Transition Request: SKOS to Proposed Recommendation

The Internationalization Core WG has a problem with this document that should be corrected before a transition is approved. This was discussed during our most recent teleconference [1] in response to comments by Felix Sasaki [2] (and others, in that thread).

During Last Call, I18N did review this document and made comments about the use of BCP 47 language tags for language identification in the prefLabel construct. I18N was satisfied by these changes. However, for whatever reason, we did not notice that there were several problematic uses of the prefLabel language tags elsewhere in the reference document. Specifically, section 6.5.4 proposes to use language tags for additional uses. We have the following concerns:

1. The language tag examples do not meet IETF BCP 47 "well-formed" criteria. BCP 47 language tags limit subtag length to eight characters. The examples in 6.5.4 are syntactically wrong as they are longer than eight characters per subtag.

2. BCP 47 specifically recommends against using private-use subtags when other mechanisms exist for data interchange. Use of private use subtags to transmit data unrelated to language or language choice is frowned upon. The examples given seem to confuse this or be in violation of this. We think they need to be clarified and clarified in a way that removes the private use subtags.

Note that, although the IESG recently approved an update to RFC 4646 (part of BCP 47), this change has no impact on this specification or our comments. We apologize for having missed this and think that the reference and the related primer should (and can easily) be updated to address this issue.

Regards,

Addison (for I18N Core WG)


[1] http://www.w3.org/2009/06/24-core-minutes.html

[2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-i18n-core/2009AprJun/0068.html


Addison Phillips
Globalization Architect -- Lab126
Chair -- W3C Internationalization WG

Internationalization is not a feature.
It is an architecture.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: chairs-request@w3.org [mailto:chairs-request@w3.org] On
> Behalf Of Guus Schreiber
> Sent: Monday, June 01, 2009 2:44 PM
> To: Tim Berners-Lee; Steve Bratt; plh@w3.org
> Cc: w3t-comm@w3.org; chairs@w3.org; SWCG; SWD WG
> Subject: Transition Request: SKOS to Proposed Recommendation
> 
> Director,
> 
> The Semantic Web Deployment Working Group requests transition to
> Proposed
> Recommendation for
> 
>    SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System Reference
>    [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/CR-skos-reference-20090317/

> 
> The updated editor's draft can be found at:
> 
>    [2] http://www.w3.org/2006/07/SWD/SKOS/reference/20090315/

> (Revision 1.13)
> 
> The proposed STOD section reads as follows:
> 
> [[
>     This document is a W3C Proposed Recommendation published by the
>     Semantic Web Deployment Working Group, part of the W3C Semantic
> Web
>     Activity.  This document reflects editorial changes arising
> during
>     the Candidate Recommendation review, summarized in the Changes
>     section.  An implementation report documents known uses of SKOS
>     during the Candidate Recommendation review period.  An updated
>     SKOS Primer Working Draft is being published concurrently with
> this
>     Proposed Recommendation.
> 
>     Comments on this document may be addressed to
>     public-swd-wg@w3.org. Please include the text "SKOS
>     comment" in the subject line. All comments sent to that address
>     are available in a public archive.
> ]]
> 
> The record of the WG decision to request this transition is at:
> 
>    [3] http://www.w3.org/2009/05/19-swd-minutes.html#item03

> 
> No substantive issues were raised during CR, though a few comments
> resulted in
> editorial clarifications to the specification. Three CR comments
> were received
> and resolved, namely:
> 
>      ISSUE-191: missing bracket in example 44
>      http://www.w3.org/2006/07/SWD/track/issues/192

> 
>      ISSUE-218: editorial errors and problems (Ch. 1)
>      http://www.w3.org/2006/07/SWD/track/issues/218

> 
>      ISSUE-219: name
>      http://www.w3.org/2006/07/SWD/track/issues/219

> 
> Changes from the Candidate Recommendation version are given in the
> "Changes"
> section of editors draft:
> 
>    [4]
> http://www.w3.org/2006/07/SWD/SKOS/reference/20090315/#changes

> 
> There were no features at risk.
> 
> The requirements have not changed since Candidate Recommendation.
> 
> This specification has no normative references to W3C
> specifications that are
> not yet Proposed Recommendations.
> 
> The Groups' implementation report [5] lists 27 implementations with
> a broad
> coverage of SKOS features.  All comments have received formal
> responses; these
> are recorded in the issue tracker [6].
> 
>    [5]
> http://www.w3.org/2006/07/SWD/SKOS/reference/20090315/implementatio

> n.html
>    [6] http://www.w3.org/2006/07/SWD/track/issues

> 
>   The specification has therefore met the CR exit criteria:
> 
> [[
>     1. At least two implementations have been demonstrated that use
>        features of the SKOS vocabulary.  Other vocabularies that
> use
>        SKOS are candidates for inclusion in the implementation
> report.
>     2. All issues raised during the CR period against this document
>        have received formal responses.
> ]]
> 
> There have been no formal objections.
> 
> There have been no changes to the patent disclosure pages since the
> transition
> to Candidate Recommendation. There are no open exclusion
> opportunities.
> 
> The Working Group intends to publish an updated version of the SKOS
> Primer
> Working Draft [7] at the same time as this Proposed Recommendation.
> 
>    [7] http://www.w3.org/TR/skos-primer/

> 
> 
> 
> Thomas Baker
> Guus Schreiber
> co-chairs Semantic Web Deployment WG
>

Received on Monday, 29 June 2009 21:24:02 UTC