[sdw] SSN 2017: how do we tell its readers that the 2023 Edition exists? (#1472)

maximelefrancois86 has just created a new issue for https://github.com/w3c/sdw:

== SSN 2017: how do we tell its readers that the 2023 Edition exists? ==
When the Semantic Sensor Network Ontology 2023 Edition becomes a W3C
Recommendation, the 2017 Recommendation needs to say so. It also needs more than
that, because several of its links change meaning on that day.

## Why links change meaning

`w3c/ns` will serve both editions. An ontology IRI such as
`http://www.w3.org/ns/sosa/sampling/` denotes the module across all of its
editions and resolves to the edition W3C recommends for new adoption; a version
IRI such as `http://www.w3.org/ns/sosa/2017/sampling/` denotes one edition and
never changes.

Three modules keep their ontology IRI in the 2023 Edition, so that IRI will
start delivering the 2023 graph: Sample Relations, the OBOE alignment and the
PROV alignment. The 2017 Recommendation links to those IRIs to show the reader
"the graph for this module". After the transition, those links deliver a
different document from the one the surrounding text describes.

Three other modules have no successor under the same IRI and are unaffected:
System Capabilities, the DUL alignment and the O&M alignment.

## Two alternatives, both implemented

Rather than describe them, both are on branches, so the diffs can be compared.

### A. Errata: `vocab-ssn-2017-errata`

The Recommendation is not touched, except for a notice under its title. Three
errata are added, and a new section of the errata page records module by module
how the 2017 Edition relates to the 2023 Edition.

Process cost: none beyond a request to the Webmaster. The W3C in-place
modification policy allows "some visible status updates, such as indicating
newer versions", which is exactly what the notice is. The errata page is
maintained by the Working Group at will.

### B. Editorial revision: `vocab-ssn-2017-editorial`

A revised Recommendation is published under section 6.3.10.1 of the W3C
Process, "Revising a Recommendation: Editorial Changes". No normative change.
Each module gains a note titled "Relationship to the 2023 Edition", the Abstract
and section 4.1 state ontology IRIs and version IRIs, the graph links are
retargeted, and the whole errata page is folded into the text.

Process cost: a Working Group decision and an update request. No Team approval,
no Advisory Committee review, no return to an earlier maturity stage.

## What the two branches share

Both start from the same commit, which restores the full 2017 text at
`ssn/index.html`. It had been replaced by a page redirecting to the editor's
draft of the 2023 Edition, while the 2017 Recommendation still announces
`https://w3c.github.io/sdw/ssn/` as its "Latest editor's draft". A reader
following that link from the Recommendation currently lands on the draft of a
different document. That commit is worth landing whichever alternative is
chosen.

Both carry the notice, under the title and above the list of versions, as W3C
does on https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/ .

Both add errata found while preparing the work: the "ontology graph for this is
available" link in section 5.1 targets the IRI of the `ssn:System` class instead
of the graph of the module, and four external links no longer resolve.

Markup was the other candidate for errata. There is nothing to report: the
published Recommendation parses with no diagnostic, has no duplicate id and no
dead internal anchor.

## What is blocked on what

Publication dates are left as `DD Month YYYY` in both branches. They are the day
the 2023 Edition becomes a Recommendation, and the notice asserts that it is
one, so nothing can be sent to the Webmaster before that day. The work is
prepared now and goes out with the transition.

The `/2017/` version IRIs must resolve before the Recommendation cites them.
That is the pull request on `w3c/ns`, which comes first.

## The question for the Working Group

Alternative A or alternative B?


Please view or discuss this issue at https://github.com/w3c/sdw/issues/1472 using your GitHub account


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Received on Saturday, 12 September 2026 06:25:47 UTC