Re: Issue with dcterms.language description

Hi Richard, all,

I am putting also the library linked data list into the loop, since many
people here are involved in dublin core, also specifically Tom Baker.

Best,

Felix

2011/7/23 Richard Ishida <ishida@w3.org>

> I hope I'm addressing this to the right people. If not, please let me know
> where to send.
>
> While reviewing the HTML5 Metaextensions registry I came across the entry
> for dcterms.language.  There are two issues with that that I'd like to bring
> to your attention:
>
> [1] The description "A language of the resource. Recommended best practice
> is to use a controlled vocabulary such as RFC 4646 [RFC4646]." is referring
> to an out of date specification.  RFC 4646 was obsoleted by RFC 5646.
>
> It would be much better to refer to BCP 47 http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/*
> *bcp/bcp47.txt <http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/bcp/bcp47.txt>.  BCP 47 is
> an unchanging name created specifically to refer to the latest version of
> the specs related to tags for identifying languages.
>
>
> [2] The 4th column contains the following text:
>
> "Redundant with the lang attribute on the html element. (Browsers pay
> attention to the lang attribute but not dcterms.language)"
>
> It's not clear to me who wrote that, but it appears to be misleading.
>
> The lang (or xml:lang) attribute on the html element defines the default or
> primary language of the *text* inside the html element (and is used by such
> text-processing applications as spell-checking, style choices, voice browser
> settings, etc. which need a clear indication of which (one) language they
> are dealing with), whereas an indication of the language of 'the resource'
> is presumably intended to be metadata about the intended audience of the
> *resource as a whole*, as described in the HTTP specification referring to
> the Content-Language header (http://tools.ietf.org/html/**
> rfc2616#section-14.12 <http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616#section-14.12>).
>
> Note that the lang attribute can take only one language tag at a time as
> its value, since the text it is referring to can only be in one language at
> a time. The Content-Language header, however, can use as many language tags
> as are appropriate to describe the intended audience of the resource.
>
> This makes the lang attribute and the Content-Language header like chalk
> and cheese.
>
> Note also that the use of http-equiv=Content-Language on the meta element
> was recently declared non-conformant in HTML5, due to the confusion that has
> surrounded its use over the years.  I'd hate to revive that confusion with
> name=dcterms.language, and so I think it would be good to clarify the
> intended usage.
>
> The loss of http-equiv=Content-Language of course means that there is no
> in-document way of signalling language metadata for the resource. I'm
> guessing that the intent of dcterms.language is to provide such a thing.
>
> If so, I think its usage needs to be described more clearly as metadata
> about the intended audience of the resource, and linked to the HTTP
> Content-Language header.  It also has to allow for a comma-separated list of
> language tags (using BCP 47 rules).
>
> If my assumptions are incorrect, I think it should be removed from the
> metaextensions registry.
>
> I hope this is of some help. Please let me know your thoughts.
>
> Best regards,
> Richard.
>
>
> --
> Richard Ishida
> Internationalization Activity Lead
> W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
>
> http://www.w3.org/**International/ <http://www.w3.org/International/>
> http://rishida.net/
>
>
> Register for the W3C MultilingualWeb Workshop!
> Limerick, 21-22 September 2011
> http://multilingualweb.eu/**register <http://multilingualweb.eu/register>
>
>