Feedback on Dataset Schema

Hi,

Some initial feedback on the new Dataset schema description. Overall I
think this is a great first start that captures the essential
information which appears to be common across various dataset
description proposals, as well as in actual usage.

I think its important to clarify the relationship of this proposal
with existing work from the Linked Data community, which has already
seen some adoption, in order to avoid confusion. The mapping between
schema elements is an important first step there. It might be useful
to also note in the documentation where a publisher might want to
support more than one approach or where another approach might offer
additional benefits.

In my own work on dataset description, the key elements that
developers and users have appreciated are:

* Clear name and description of a dataset, with some indication of
scope. The schema supports that, and includes spatial support
* Clear provenance -- achieved through use of publisher markup
* Clear publication dates: when was the dataset published, when was it
last updated. It might also be useful to indicate the time period to
which the dataset applies, e.g. census data for UK for 1901.
* Pointers to downloads -- captured as DatasetDownload

With the addition of a few new types and properties, and reuse of
existing schema.org markup, these core use cases seem well covered.

It would be useful to see more examples that cover each of these
areas, including how to communicate downloads in various formats.

I note that the table in the wiki refers to ds:license but this is not
called out anywhere. Does a generic license property apply to the
Dataset schema or is there a more general term? License might usefully
be captured as an enumeration of, e.g. Creative Commons and Open
Government licenses.

It might also be useful to be able to indicate where a user of a
dataset can contact the publisher to report problems with a dataset,
or ask questions about its usage. As well as a short description,
pointers to fuller documentation are also useful.

Hope thats useful!

Cheers,

L.
--
Leigh Dodds
Freelance Technologist
e: leigh@ldodds.com
t: @ldodds
w: http://ldodds.com

Received on Thursday, 12 July 2012 07:42:41 UTC