naming, ownership, persistence, change policies

Hi all,

To try and express the various policies around the management of SKOS Core, I've drafted some text, which I thought could go in the SKOS Core Vocabulary Specification for now.  I've used the DCMI policies as a template, and tried to keep it as simple as possible.  Here it is, tell me what you think:


Naming Policy
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The URI for a class or property in the SKOS Core Vocabulary is constructed by appending the local name for that property or class to the URI http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#.  E.g.

http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#Concept
http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#prefSymbol

The local name of a class always starts with an uppercase character.  Where the local name is comprised of multiple concatenated words, the leading character of each word will be an uppercase character. E.g.

Concept
ConceptScheme

The local name of a property starts with a lowercase character. Where the local name is comprised of multiple concatenated words, the leading character of the second and each subsequent word will be an uppercase character. E.g.

subject
prefLabel
isPrimarySubjectOf


Persistence Policy
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This document, the SKOS Core Guide, the RDF description of the SKOS Core Vocabulary, and the classes and properties of the SKOS Core Vocabulary are all declared to be persistent resources, and are therefore bound by the W3C Persistence Policy.


Change Policy
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Changes to SKOS Core classes and properties may occur.  Each class or property is assigned a term-status value, which indicates the stability of the resource, and the types of modification that are allowed.

A class or property may take one of three term-status values:

unstable
    The term is unstable, and feedback is requested on it's current form and utility (analagous to 'alpha' release in software development). It may currently be poorly defined. It's meaning and/or form may change at any time. Do not implement mission critical systems that depend on this term persisting in its current form.  (Changes corresponding to DCMI classes A, B and C may occur).

testing
    The term has gone beyond the raw proposal stage, and is undergoing testing (analagous to 'beta' release in software development). This term may still change in response to feedback from testing, although it may be expected not to undergo any radical change. The cost to early implementors of changing the term will be considered, however the goal of achieving wider interoperability and long-term stability may override those considerations.
(Changes corresponding to DCMI classes A and B may occur).

stable
    No substantial (meaning changing) alterations will take place. Implementors can expect the term to persist in its current form indefinitely.
(Changes corresponding to DCMI class A may occur).

New classes or properties may be added to the SKOS Core Vocabulary at any time (changes corresponding to DCMI class D).

A class or property at any of the above status levels may be marked as deprecated, in which case instructions will be given on what to use in its place.  A deprecated class property may be expected to remain unchanged indefinitely.


Ownership and Maintenance Policy
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The W3C takes no formal responsibility for the continued maintenance of the SKOS Core Vocabulary.  Responsibility for maintaining the SKOS Core Vocabulary is assumed by the designated editors, who are at this time:

Alistair Miles
Dan Brickley

The editors pledge to seek the widest possible consensus from the members of the public-esw-thes@w3.org mailing list before making any changes to the SKOS Core Vocabulary.  The editors also pledge to carry out all development work openly and in public, in consultation with the members of the public-esw-thes@w3.org mailing list. This mailing list is publicly archived, and any person may join at any time.  

---
Alistair Miles
Research Associate
CCLRC - Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Building R1 Room 1.60
Fermi Avenue
Chilton
Didcot
Oxfordshire OX11 0QX
United Kingdom
Email:        a.j.miles@rl.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1235 445440

Received on Tuesday, 8 February 2005 13:57:57 UTC