RE: EXTERNAL: Re: Proposal for an additional term: mediaType

My understanding is that MediaType means the physical means of conveying the resource. For example, MediaType of "Calculator" would mean that the  resource is installed on a calculator, MediaType of "Duplication Master" would mean resource is the master copy etc. this is different from the Internet Media Type which seems to mean the encoding format.
__________________________________
From: Dan Brickley [danbri@danbri.org]
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2012 5:37 AM
To: Public Vocabs; Suliman, Suraiya H; Greg Grossmeier
Cc: Thomas Baker; Stuart Sutton
Subject: EXTERNAL: Re: Proposal for an additional term: mediaType

Thanks all. Yes, FRBR is quite another level of complexity, although
it is driven by the same concerns Richard mentioned - the concern to
distinguish works in the abstract from the particularities of their
various practical forms. And to be able to describe useful properties
of both without getting into a muddle.

These are not new distinctions and as Martin and Ivan point out, we
should take care not to re-use existing phrases (like 'media type') in
unfamiliar ways. Or for that matter to arbitrarily introduce new
wording for existing concepts; or if we do, at least we should
document the relationships.

Dublin Core makes some related distinctions. Compare ...

http://dublincore.org/documents/2012/06/14/dcmi-terms/?v=terms#terms-format
"The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource."
"Examples of dimensions include size and duration. Recommended best
practice is to use a controlled vocabulary such as the list of
Internet Media Types [MIME]."

http://dublincore.org/documents/2012/06/14/dcmi-terms/?v=terms#terms-type
"The nature or genre of the resource."
"Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary such as
the DCMI Type Vocabulary [DCMITYPE]. To describe the file format,
physical medium, or dimensions of the resource, use the Format
element."

A fairly short list of DCMI Types seems to be at
http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-type-vocabulary/#H6 (scroll down
a bit...) or see also
http://dublincore.org/documents/2000/07/11/dcmi-type-vocabulary/

I didn't find a list yet corresponding to the granularity of Greg's
request, but maybe I missed it. Tom, Stuart ... any pointers?

>From Greg's mail...

 - Audio CD
 - Audiotape
 - Calculator
 - CD-I
 - CD-ROM
 - Diskette
 - Duplication Master
 - DVD/ Blu-ray
 - etc

These seem closer to 'dc:format' to me, but also seem to emphasise
supporting physical hardware - rather than types of media. I find it
hard to think of 'Calculator' as a media type, for example.

Greg, Suraiya, ... can you say a bit more about your usage scenario?
What kind of record would 'Calculator' or 'Duplication Master' appear
in, for example?

cheers,

Dan

Received on Tuesday, 28 August 2012 20:32:24 UTC