Re: [dxwg] Service vs endpoint (#1242)

@jakubklimek , @smrgeoinfo , thanks for your feedback, and sorry for my late reply.

This issue is yet to be discussed by DXWG, so no position has been taken for the moment. However, IMO, you rightly pointed out which is the key issue here, namely "what identifies a service". 

I perfectly agree that, from a data-centred perspective, a service may correspond to an endpoint, using a given protocol, etc. This is actually what has been implemented in DCAT 2 for distributions accessible via a service/API. However, in DCAT 2, services/APIs have been also introduced as first-class citizens, and, as such, their existence may not be necessarily bound to the data they serve, and therefore it is arguable whether a service actually corresponds to an endpoint.

My example was related to what happens in the geospatial domain, where services are fist-class citizens of a catalogue. There, as you know, a service is not identified by the endpoint protocol, but rather by a conceptual definition of its "type" (download, view, transformation, invoke service), which can be implemented by using different protocols.

This may not be considered now the "right" way of doing it - there's a lot of discussion about the disadvantages of the service-centred approach used in the geo domain. But, as a matter of fact, there's a wide community following this approach, and producing metadata which are also made available using DCAT - in addition to their native ISO 19115 / ISO 19119 / ISO 19139 representation.

As you say, @jakubklimek , having two different ways of describing the same thing does not help usability. This is definitely something that the DXWG will take into account about this issue. However, this needs to be carefully weighed against the fact that the way services are currently represented in DCAT may prevent / limit its use in specific communities.

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Received on Saturday, 4 July 2020 23:02:04 UTC