Re: [dxwg] Scope of DCAT - datasets, or digital descriptions (#1235)

@dr-shorthair Simon, thanks for starting this. 

In the spirit of "anyone can say anything about anything" I don't think that one would want to try to limit the uses of DCAT. That, however, is different from encouraging uses that have yet to be shown as fruitful. Before making any changes to the DCAT documentation, it would seem to me that a good approach would be to begin to gather and publicize all uses of DCAT and see what develops in the real world. 

There's a related issue, though, which is whether the use of some portion of the DCAT vocabulary (any of the classes or properties) = an instance of DCAT. This is a general problem in the mix'n'match world, not specific to DCAT, but needs to inform the group's thinking. What is it that makes a DCAT instance? Anything from the standard? Everything? This opens the question of how a DCAT instance is defined. It may be that the only viable definition comes from the DCAT-AP and related specifications, because those have constraints (e.g. what classes are mandatory). In any case, I feel that there has to be some definition against which instances can be measured before one can say which are instances of DCAT. I have my own thoughts on what distinguishes DCAT from other catalogs, but that may be for a different thread.

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Received on Sunday, 19 April 2020 21:30:36 UTC