RE: "Authority" of HTTP-based Resource Descriptor

> From: Jonathan Rees
> [ . . . ]
> I think "authoritative metadata" is potentially a dangerous and
> confusing term.  You can't take a file full of metadata and say it is
> "authoritative" (is said by someone who has authority over it) unless
> you have reason to think that every statement in the file is indeed
> something that X has authority over.

Yes, it has caused quite a bit of confusion.  As a case in point, if a URI declaration provides a 'file full of metadata' which is a series of assertions, then that URI declaration is authoritative *only* in the sense that it defines an association between a URI and a resource, the "authority" to define that association having been granted from the AWWW to the URI owner:
http://www.w3.org/TR/webarch/#uri-ownership
However, as you and Larry suggest this does *not* necessarily mean that the individual assertions contained in that 'file full of metadata' are true.  "URI Declaration in Semantic Web Architecture" has a section discussing this confusion:
http://dbooth.org/2007/uri-decl/20081126.htm#authoritative
[[
What does "authoritative" mean?
The word "authoritative" has sometimes caused confusion in discussions of URI declarations.  If a URI 303-redirects to a URI declaration page, or if it has a fragment identifier and dereferencing the part before the hash "#" leads to a URI declaration page, in what sense is a URI declaration made by that page "authoritative"?   Does it mean that:

    * the assertions in the URI declaration are necessarily true?  No.
    * the author of that page believes that the assertions are true?  Not necessarily.
    * the author of that page is a recognized expert on the subject of that page?  No.
    * the URI owner gets to control what others may say about the URI's associated resource?  No.
    * the URI is the most popular or dominant URI for denoting the associated resource?  No.
    * [Are there other examples I should have included here?]

A URI declaration is authoritative only in defining the *association* between the declared URI and a particular resource.  (More precisely, it defines the first part of this association, as explained above.)  The declaration creates a social expectation that other parties making use of that URI will use it to denote that same resource.  (More precisely, it creates the social expectation that a party using the URI to denote its resource agrees with the core assertions in the URI declaration.)  This is analogous to the social expectation that is created when a standards organization publishes a specification named XYZ and a product manufacturer then advertises an XYZ product.  If that product does not conform to the XYZ specification, the manufacturer will be viewed as having violated a social expectation.
]]




David Booth, Ph.D.
HP Software
+1 617 629 8881 office  |  dbooth@hp.com
http://www.hp.com/go/software

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