RE: DC in XHTML2

On Thu, 2005-06-09 at 11:59 +0100, Mark Birbeck wrote: 
> Dan,
> 
> > I appreciate that the HTML 
> > WG are naturally wary of adding more attributes, but in this 
> > case there seems to be a solid use case with significant 
> > (news, dublin core) usage scenarios. 
> 
> I don't know what "naturally wary" means in this context; genetically
> predisposed? 

All I meant was that you take your responsibilities seriously, and need
to
be able to make a clear case for changes to HTML. Also, talking with
Steven about 
the bNode issue, I got the impression that adding structure/conventions
within
the values of a single attribute is perhaps seen as preferable to adding
a 
new attribute, where possible.

> However, since two members of the HTML WG (myself and Steven)
> actually encouraged Misha to raise this issue on the public lists so that it
> could be discussed, and even pretty much guaranteed that by hook or crook we
> would solve the problem, then I'd say we're 'genetically predisposed' to
> finding solutions! ;)

Great :)


> On a more serious note, it's my strong belief that we can forget about the
> Semantic Web (yes, that), if we don't get the news organisations on board
> with XHTML 2. If I see another calendar or vCard demo I think I'll go
> bonkers....so I'm actively looking for use cases like Misha's, since we need
> to know now if there are reasons why communities will not use XHTML 2 and
> its new metadata features, and try to address them whilst we still can.

Yes, let's do make sure this works for professional news data, as well
as for
grassroots webloggy stuff. I believe that having an environment where
both can
make use of common infrastructure (ie. RDF/A syntax, and Dublin Core and
SKOS 
vocabularies) is hugely important. RDF/XML suffered because it lacked
an 
idiom for writing URI-based property values using a qname-based shortcut
notation. The resulting markup was too verbose for many, and instead
people used unstructured string values instead. Now that we have SKOS,
which was 
designed to work with dc:subject, I think we could see great things
built 
with news applications and XHTML2
(http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-skos-core-guide/
and nearby).

> (That sounds like a rant, but it's not ;) ... Such is the way with email.)

I think we're much in agreement. Similarly, I'd be interested to learn
more about news organization requirements/aspirations regarding the
structure of the things a dc:subject might point to, and in particular
on getting review comments on the SKOS working drafts there...

cheers,

Dan

Received on Thursday, 9 June 2005 13:16:36 UTC