RE: 27 Jan 2004 Draft finding "Client handling of authoritative metadata" available

I continue to be uneasy about the possible lack of reality in part of
this finding.  

In particular I am concerned about the statement:

"Recipients SHOULD detect inconsistencies between representation data
and metadata but MUST NOT resolve them without the consent of the user
(e.g., by securing permission or at least providing notification)."

I think this part of the finding needs to at least admit that there is a
usability factor that is on the other side of this MUST NOT equation.  

If recipients were to ask or to warn a user every time they dealt with
an inconsistency between representation data and metadata, I think a
large number of users would be disappointed with the large number of
prompts/warning messages they would receive due to the large amount of
inconsistency that exists in the web today between representation data
and metadata.

I think the finding needs to note this tradeoff.

/paulc

Paul Cotton, Microsoft Canada 
17 Eleanor Drive, Nepean, Ontario K2E 6A3 
Tel: (613) 225-5445 Fax: (425) 936-7329 
mailto:pcotton@microsoft.com