Re: [dxwg] question > is a software solution a dcat:Dataset? (#1221)

I agree that it should be up to the user to determine whether a resource is in fact a dataset, but I think we could provide some guidance that would help people understand what scope is intended. Call me an optimist, but I don't think this is an insurmountable issue. To address Makx's most relevant question, I think we stand to gain clarity in decision making if we can avoid having to generalize the vocabulary to cover every bit of web content out there. We can also avoid calling for unrealistic levels of cooperation (e.g., asking all publishers of content to do something that really only applies to all publishers of data). If our scope includes the entire web, we are doomed to try to boil the ocean. But I don't think this means we can't acknowledge the multiplicity of types of data out there. 

I think it's clear that any web resource (not any *thing*, so not vehicles) can be treated as data, especially in the age of machine learning. There is plenty of precedent for running text being used as data, so why not software code? In the Scope section of DCAT 2, we mention several types of media and "potentially other types" of data. In my opinion, any given content type can be considered data, but that doesn't mean that the vocabulary needs to be generalized to cover all possible instances of the various things on the web, whether they are intended to be used as data or not.

The difference, in my mind, is intent. If a thing is published with the intention of making it available for mathematical analysis, then it is data, and collections that include things of its type should be describable with DCAT. If a thing is published online without that intention, then there is no need for it to be describable with DCAT. Webster's 3rd provides a useful definition: "A magnitude, figure, or relation supposed to be given, drawn, or known in a mathematical investigation from which other magnitudes, figures, or relations are to be deduced." That is all about intent.

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Received on Friday, 6 March 2020 19:24:43 UTC