Re: definition of Web Publication

Hi all,

I'm the digital publications manager at the Getty and a new member of the working group here. I'm actually on vacation this week and with not much of a connection, so will give a more proper introduction to our work at the Getty another time, but I wanted to just jump in and chime in on this important and really interesting thread now.

I agree with Matt, Brady and others that the short definition is good but too broad and generalized to have useful meaning moving forward. Rather than try to provide specific examples of what a WP may be though, I'd like to see us try to define it by its key characteristics. For me, those characteristics are defined in the various requirements docs, and particularly by those we label as MUST rather than MAY. From what I've seen in the various documents so far, online/offline access and default reading order are two of the key MUSTs that aren't yet integrated into the core short definition of a WP.

Additionally for me, a publication, web or otherwise, also must always have a sense of objectness, which for me is about its scope, or as I think Matt suggested "bounds", and about it being something explicitly created or authored at a particular time or place, which Luc was getting at with "... a set of resources demonstrating the intentions of a creator/author at that date."

All that said, and putting aside the idea of a separate definition for a PWP for the moment, this is my stab at the short WP definition:

A Web Publication (WP) is a[n explicitly authored/created] collection of one or more constituent resources, bound together [through a manifest] in a uniquely identifiable grouping with a defined though not necessarily permanent reading order, that can be presented using standard Open Web Platform technologies, and accessed online or off.

And +1 for Laurent's definition of manifest.

Thanks, and thrilled to be here!

Greg


--
Greg Albers
Digital Publications Manager | Getty Publications
https://github.com/gettypubs

galbers@getty.edu<mailto:galbers@getty.edu> | @geealbers

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Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 25, 2017, at 8:38 AM, Laurent Le Meur <laurent.lemeur@edrlab.org<mailto:laurent.lemeur@edrlab.org>> wrote:

The current definition is facing a large set of comments. From these comments, I tried a variant of Matt's proposal:

A Web Publication (WP) is a collection of one or more Web resources organized together through a manifest. The content of a Web Publication can take a wide variety of forms, from formal artistic and intellectual works to ad hoc documents and memos. Web Publications are presented to end-users using Open Web Platform technologies.

A manifest is the structured information necessary for the proper identification and description of a Web Publication, plus the default reading order of its primary constituents.

Laurent