Re: Attribute Architecture and completeness question

> Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 10:17:12 +1000
> From: Alan Kent <ajk@mds.rmit.edu.au>
> 
> I guess the first question is "is anyone moving towards the new
> attribute architecture or should I just ignore it?"  No criticism of
> the work, just wondering if its worth considering or I should just
> forget it.

I think you should very much use it when defining profiles for new
application areas -- to me, this seems a no-brainer.  Obvious examples
of where this has been done to good effect are the Zthes profile
(zthes.z3950.org) and the ZeeRex specifications (explain.z3950.org).

The next case to consider is whether to use the AA for new profiles in
existing application areas -- geo-spatial, bibliographic, etc.  My
feeling (but here it really is just my opinion) is again: yes, the AA
is good, solid base for such work and should be used whenever
possible.  The problem is of course that when defining (say) a
bibliographic service, there will rightly be pressure to interoperate
with existing services -- and they will overwhelmingly be using BIB-1
rather than the AA, utility/cross-domain and BIB-2 sets.

There is some fear that BIB-2 may have missed the boat by coming along
slightly too late to get included in the Bath profile.  I'm not really
involved in that area of things, so I can't comment -- except to say
that I think it's a real shame if it's true.

> The validity of the attribute architecture in general I am uncertain
> of.  Several of the pages linked from the web site (marc attribute
> set and Bib-2 set) hosted at RLG are now broken links. All the
> documents are dated 1999 - however there were some comments inserted
> dated March 2003.  Is it dead or alive? Is there a separate mailing
> list? Or should I forget it and stick with the Bath 2.0 profile.

The links certainly need updating!

 _/|_	 _______________________________________________________________
/o ) \/  Mike Taylor  <mike@indexdata.com>  http://www.miketaylor.org.uk
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Received on Thursday, 8 May 2003 09:15:49 UTC