Re: "scheme" attribute of META element

Ian Hickson wrote:
>> I can't speak for Elliot, but the Web repository connector inside SAP
>> Netweaver's Knowledge Management has supported RFC2731-style encoded
>> metadata (as shown above) for many years now.
>
> Could you elaborate on how this tool consumes this data? Any information

> you may have would be very useful. Could you walk us through an example
of
> how this information gets used? How do the various schemes affect the
> handling of the metadata? Have you found particular processing is needed

> to process invalid values? Is the tool's input limited to files
generated
> by one organisation, or does it process input from arbitrary Web sites?

The 'scheme' attribute is also used by UK Government websites. The
e-Government Metadata Standard gives elements and refinements to be used
in metadata for information resources and is available here:
http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/schemasstandards/metadata_document.asp?docnum=10
17

This gives several examples where the 'scheme' element is mentioned, and
uses different schemes, such as Dublin Core (on page 19 of the document):
'<meta name="DCTERMS.temporal" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF"
content="2006-04-20"/>' where the date will follow the guidelines here:
http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime or (on page 34): '<meta
name="DC.identifier" scheme="DCTERMS.URI"
content="http://purl.oclc.org/NET/e-GMS_v1"/>' where the URI guidelines
should be used: http://purl.org/dc/terms/URI

As well as using Dublin Core, other schemes are used, such as IPSV
(Integrated Public Sector Vocabulary): '<meta name="DC.subject"
scheme="eGMS.IPSV" content="Youth centres"/>'. IPSV is a controlled list
that was developed with the backing of the Department for Communities and
Local Government (CLG - formerly the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister)
and the e-Government Unit (e-GU) of the Cabinet Office for use by UK
public sector organisations and is available in machine-readable format
from here: http://www.esd.org.uk/standards/ipsv/

The IPSV format referenced in the e-GMS guidance is used by many sites,
such as
http://www.poole.gov.uk/children_integrated/services/ref:S4649B18BD5605/ak
a:Bourne+Valley+Youth+Centre/ and the metadata can be used to index the
resources, such as on this page:
http://www.esd.org.uk/standards/ipsv/viewer/TermUsageList.aspx?term=Youth%
20centres&id=4665&treeid=AlternateTree&referrer=main.aspx

Due to the fact that IPSV uses a controlled set of terms, these pages can
be referenced in a way which is relatively easy for a machine to
reference, as the scheme gives the name of the list to be used and the
content gives the name of the item, making it a more reliable way of
sourcing the exact content of the page and matching it to others that are
used. The extent of its use means that Sitemorse, a company who check page
validity of UK sites in several areas, use this metadata to check content:
http://www.sitemorse.com/kb.html?kb=1266176694 and it is a feature built
into a CMS used by UK sites:
http://www.jadu.co.uk/info/20029/government/45/integrated_public_sector_vo
cabulary_ipsv/1

Tom Dent
Porism Limited
tom.dent@porism.com

Received on Wednesday, 29 July 2009 11:20:28 UTC