Comments and questions about Data Access BP

Hi all,

I am reviewing the DWBP document and I have some comments/questions about
the Data Access Section.

@Annette, as you wrote big part of this section, I'd like to kindly ask
your help with the following comments.

1. Introduction

I’m not sure if the following paragraph fits in this section:

On a further note, it can be observed that data on the Web is essentially
about the description of entities identified by a unique, Web-based,
identifier (an URI). Once the data is dumped and sent to an institute
specialised in digital preservation the link with the Web is broken
(dereferencing) but the role of the URI as a unique identifier still
remains. In order to increase the usability of preserved dataset dumps it
is relevant to maintain a list of these identifiers.

2. BP 19 Provide bulk download

Data or datasets should be available for bulk download? I think the BP
should refer to datasets instead of data. I think the meaning of bulk
download should be more clear.

I don’t understand this phrase: “When Web data is distributed across many
URIs but might logically be organized as one container, accessing the data
in bulk can be useful." Again, I think the BP should consider datasets
instead of data.

I’m not sure if I understood the example. Is one dataset with multiple CSV
files? or multiple datasets each one with a CSV distribution? The bulk
download contains one dataset or multiple datasets?

3. Best Practice 20: Provide Subsets for Large Datasets

In the example, can we use CSV format instead of PDF format?

R-Citable is an evidence for this BP?

4. BP 23 Provide data up to date

The description of BP 23 says: “Data must be available in an up-to-date
manner and the update frequency made explicit. " But the BP doesn’t mention
how to make the update frequency available. I suggest to remove   “and the
update frequency made explicit" from the description.

5. BP 25 : Use Web Standards as the foundation of your API"
Is possible to rewrite the description of the BP to make the text smaller?
In general, BP descriptions are one or two lines.

I’m not sure if the example is suitable for this BP. Maybe the example
needs a better explanation or the BP needs a better example :)

The same for the the How to test section: “Check that the service avoids
using http as a tunnel for calls to custom methods, and check that URIs do
not contain method names”. I don’t see how this is a test about using Web
standards.

6. BP 26: Provide complete documentation for your API

It would be better if the example of this BP should be related with the bus
stops example.

I think the following phrases should be on the approach to implementation
and not on the how to test section: “The quality of documentation is also
related to usage and feedback from developers. Try to get constant feedback
from your users about the documentation."

7. BP 27 Avoid Breaking Changes to Your API

The how to test section  seems more like an approach to implementation than
to a test. Is it possible to rewrite?

It would be great to have an example that also uses the bus stop dataset.
Maybe the example of BP 27 can be related with the example of BP 26.

Thanks a lot!
Bernadette


-- 
Bernadette Farias Lóscio
Centro de Informática
Universidade Federal de Pernambuco - UFPE, Brazil
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