W3C Data Exchange Working Group: Invitation to review draft revision of DCAT

Dear All,


This mail is to update you on the work of the W3C Data Exchange Working
Group [1] and to ask for your help in reviewing progress on the revision of
the RDF vocabulary for data catalogues, DCAT, that was published on 16
October 2018. The draft of the revision is available at
https://www.w3.org/TR/vocab-dcat-2/.

The revision of DCAT is part of a group of 3 deliverables described in the
Charter [2], but it is able to stand up by itself as an update to the
recommended way in which data catalogues should be published on the web.

The main ways in which this first draft revision differs from the current
recommendation include:

   - the scope of DCAT is extended to include data services and data
   distribution services, as well as datasets, as members of a catalog
   - some initial recommendations concerning the use of elements from the
   W3C PROV-O vocabulary for Dataset provenance
   - recommendations for catalogs with lower expressivity, concerning the
   relations between Datasets and associated resources
   - recommendations concerning the description of dataset quality,
   primarily using DQV (from the Data on the Web Working Group)
   - some minor adjustments to support citation of all catalogued resources
   - more relaxed axiomatisation that gives greater flexibility to the
   domain and range Classes of several predicates

In addition, among other things, we are working on:

   - ways of dealing with related datasets (including sub-datasets)
   - further recommendations regarding use of PROV-O elements and patterns
   in DCAT descriptions
   - patterns for dataset versioning

In reviewing the draft it might be helpful for you to keep in mind the “Use
Cases and Requirements” document that we are working to [3].

We would find it helpful to get feedback on the following lines:

   1. Do you agree with the direction of travel of this revision of DCAT?
   2. Are there any areas where we could improve what we have done? [please
   illustrate]
   3. Are there any areas where you think the proposal is wrong or could
   lead us into developing proposals that are erroneous? [please give examples
   and reasons]
   4. Are there other use cases for data catalogues and datasets
   descriptions that we have not considered [please illustrate]

Please also feel free to make any other comments and suggestions regarding
the draft. Note that positive comments or general assent to changes are
very welcome, as these provide evidence of community acceptance.

Please, send comments through GitHub issues (
https://github.com/w3c/dxwg/issues) or through email at
public-dxwg-comments@w3.org.

Best wishes


Alejandra (on behalf of the W3C DXWG)


[1] https://www.w3.org/2017/dxwg/wiki/Main_Page

[2] https://www.w3.org/2017/dxwg/charter

[3] https://www.w3.org/TR/dcat-ucr/