Deprecate http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns# in favour of /ns/rdf# ??

Dear all,

An idea has been floated and I'd like to assess the community's 
reaction. The rdf and rdfs namespaces are hard to remember (I always 
copy and paste, I guess you do too), but how do you react to the idea of 
deprecating those namespaces in favour of the much easier to remember 
http://www.w3.org/ns/rdf|s ?

For emphasis, there would be *no change* at all to the semantics of any 
term, but the existing semantics might be more clearly explained.

For:
====

1. In addition to replicating the schemas at that namespace, more 
detailed usage notes could be added;
2. Multilingual labels, comments and usage notes could easily be added 
(this is something I'm really keen to promote);
3. You'd be able to remember the namespace.

Against
=======
1. Everyone just copies and pastes and loads of tools have the 
namespaces built in so it's pointless.
2. Any copy or derivative work might cause confusion.
3. One person's clarity is another person's confusion, meaning that the 
promise of not changing the semantics might be hard to keep in some 
people's minds.

How it might happen
===================
*IF* there is community desire for this then I would suggest that a 
Community Group be formed to take it on. Any publication of the schema 
in /ns space would have to make clear that the relevant standards remain 
untouched and normative so that if any errors are seen, then the /TR doc 
is the one to choose.

Good idea?
Stupid idea?
Great, count me in for the Community group?
You are a moron, please don't ever suggest anything like that ever again?

If your answer is negative then I hereby deny all association :-) I'm 
just making a public version of something said to me in private.

Thanks

Phil.

-- 

Phil Archer
W3C Data Activity Lead (TBC)

http://philarcher.org
+44 (0)7887 767755
@philarcher1

Received on Thursday, 28 November 2013 14:28:13 UTC