Re: Audiobook proposal - discussion

Thanks Karen!

On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 12:29 PM, Karen Coyle <kcoyle@kcoyle.net> wrote:
> I added the audiobook proposal to the agenda for tomorrow, hoping it would
> be a short item. Looking again, though, I see some areas that we might want
> to discuss.
>
> First, I think it is uncontroversial that audiobooks do need to be
> represented, and to be distinguishable from hard copy books. The rise of
> their importance is unmistakable. The question, therefore, is how best to
> make these visible through schema.org.
>
> Q1: schema.org Class or product ontology
>
> - Right now the example shows a newly defined schema.org class "Audiobook".
>
> [Note that there is an enumeration http://schema.org/BookFormatType for
> ebook, hardcopy and paperback. This predates the productontology merge with
> schema.org. Can we agree that we do not want to make use of this
> enumeration?]

Agreed here, given that we can't use the schema.org extension
mechanism to add to the base enumeration options, and there's no good
base BookFormatType to extend.

> -- Arguments for a separate Class:
> --- Makes Audiobook visible in the schema.org list of schemas, so easier for
> folks to find
> --- Adds audiobook-specific properties only to audiobook, not to book
> ("readBy")

Note that in the "additional super-classes" portion of the Audiobook
proposal, I've pointed at the more specific "Thing > CreativeWork >
MediaObject > AudioObject" instead of at MediaObject; hopefully this
is acceptable.

As an alternative, if we used schema.org's extensions mechanism, we
could use CreativeWork.contributor/readBy to identify the narrator
instead of defining a new property.

> -- Arguments for productontology
> --- Doesn't add a separate Class for just one or a few properties

I sympathize with this view, but as
http://www.productontology.org/doc/Audiobook itself hits on the
importance of whether the work is "abridged" or not, I think we need
the property somewhere.

> Q2: "abridged" and "extent"
>
> - In addition to "readBy" there are two properties that are needed:
> "abridged" and "extent".
>
> -- extent: schema.org/duration already exists for media files, but many
> creative works have an extent, whether it is multiple volumes, multiple
> disks in a set, numbers of maps, etc. This seems like a logical addition to
> CreativeWork.

I worry a bit that the definition of "extent" that we use in the
library / archive world is unfamiliar to many. In addition, we use it
for two different physical descriptions, per
http://www.loc.gov/ead/tglib/elements/extent.html : "the quantity of
the materials being described or an expression of the physical space
they occupy".

On the "trying to work with existing schema.org properties", there is
already a MediaObject.contentSize property for file size, and Product
includes height and width properties that would potentially satisfy
the "50 linear feet" form of extent; I'm wondering if
Offer.includesObject would be a reasonable way to satisfy the "set of
12 CDs" / "1 map (5 plates)" form of extent.

> -- abridged: "abridged" is an important piece of information for audiobooks,
> but logically could be applied to any book. At the moment it is listed as a
> property of Audiobook. I'm less sure whether it fits CreativeWork in
> general, however.

I agree that it should be added to Book, at least, which would also
lend support to the notion of having Audiobook derive from Book.
Checking for "abridged" versions of movies and TV seasons in the wild
is currently leading me mostly to spoofs, which wouldn't be what we're
looking for. I can think of edited versions of films that were made
available for various cultural and religious communities, but again,
I'm not sure that fits the definition of "abridged".

Slightly off-topic, but given that the value of "abridged" is either
true or false, I modified the proposal & example to take a Boolean
instead of a Text value, and used the proposed simple "true" / "false"
values that make RDFa happy as well per
http://www.w3.org/2011/webschema/track/issues/14, rather than the
"http://schema.org/True" value.

> Q3: subclass to CreativeWork or Book
>
> - Right now Audiobook is listed as subclassed to CreativeWork, with a note
> saying that it could be subclassed to Book. If we decide that Audiobook
> should be a class, which of these seems best?

I would be tempted to go with the most specific parent, and thus
subclass it from Book. I mean, hey, Audiobook has "book" as a
substring :) More seriously, I'm sure the Book properties
"bookEdition" and "isbn" could be useful for Audiobook, and if we
propose adding "abridged" to Book, then there's even more reason to
subclass it from there.

Received on Tuesday, 16 July 2013 14:32:21 UTC