Re: [PORT] SKOS maintenance policy - 2/2 (substantive comments)

On further reflection, here is my suggested interpretation
again, only bit more concisely and with URIs added:

-- The "latest version" of the human-readable W3C 
   specification for the SKOS Core Vocabulary [1] is 
   the authoritative expression of the SKOS Core
   vocabulary at any given point in time.

-- A formal representation of the authoritative human-readable
   W3C specification is maintained in RDF/OWL [3].
   This RDF/OWL representation should accurately reflect the
   latest version of the SKOS Core Vocabulary, although there
   may on occasion be short periods (e.g., during Web site
   publication) during which there are minor inconsistencies.

-- W3C gives control over the specification to working
   groups within the overall framework of W3C process.
   Currently, that control resides with the Semantic Web
   Best Practices and Deployment Working Group [4]. When the
   working group's charter expires, control will revert to
   W3C as an organization.

-- Status is assigned to specific historical versions of the
   human-readable SKOS Core Vocabulary specification, such as
   the version of 2005-03-24, which is an "Editor's Draft" [2].

-- At any given point in time, the SKOS Core Vocabulary
   may be said to have the W3C status of the historical version
   (e.g., [2]) corresponding to the "latest version" at that
   time (e.g., [1]).

One additional comment on the versioning (or non-versioning)
of the RDF/OWL representation: In the SKOS model (as I have
interpreted it), the RDF/OWL representation is subject to
continual change and is not itself subject to historical
versioning.  Rather, it is versioned indirectly, in the form of
the historical series of human-readable specifications to which
it corresponds at various points in time.  It is worth noting
that in Dublin Core practice, the successive historical states
of the RDF schema are also given persistent URIs and archived
[6,7,8,9], so that at any given time, the URI of a term [5]
will resolve to the "latest version" of the RDF schema (e.g.,
currently [9]).

Tom

[1] http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core/spec/
[2] http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core/spec/2005-03-24
[3] http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core.rdf
[4] http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/BestPractices/
[5] http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/creator
[6] http://dublincore.org/2000/03/13/dces
[7] http://dublincore.org/2001/08/14/dces
[8] http://dublincore.org/2002/08/13/dces
[9] http://dublincore.org/2003/03/24/dces

-- 
Dr. Thomas Baker                        Thomas.Baker@izb.fraunhofer.de
Institutszentrum Schloss Birlinghoven         mobile +49-160-9664-2129
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft                          work +49-30-8109-9027
53754 Sankt Augustin, Germany                    fax +49-2241-144-2352
Personal email: thbaker79@alumni.amherst.edu

Received on Thursday, 31 March 2005 07:28:49 UTC