Re: Better description for 'keywords' property

On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 02:17:12PM +0100, Dan Brickley wrote:
>On 17 May 2014 06:31, Stéphane Corlosquet <scorlosquet@gmail.com> wrote:
>> From previous conversations on this list, it looks like
>> http://schema.org/keywords is meant to hold a list of comma-separated
>> keywords, like the RDFa on this page:
>> http://arc.lib.montana.edu/msu-photos/item/286:
>>
>> <span property="keywords">john burke, msc, football, team</span>
>>
>> If this is correct, the description for this property, which currently reads
>> "The keywords/tags used to describe this content", could be a bit more
>> detailled. I suggest:
>>
>> A comma-separated list of keywords/tags used to describe this content.
>
>This sounds reasonable to me. The only objections I can think of
>involve trying to stretch this property too far, e.g. phrases that
>contain commas within them. Let's keep it simple...
>
>Does anyone here think that this change would not be an improvement?

More specificity in defintions is certainly an improvement, but in the
absence of a "simple SKOS" mechanism, I know that software in the
library domain typically uses "keywords" (with its range of Text) to
express hierarchical subject headings.

(Rationale: "description" seems much more appropriate for written abstracts or
phrase-like constructions, while "keywords/tags" is a better match for
the typically 1-3 word subject headings used in libraries, and nothing
else had a range of Text that seemed like any kind of a match.)

So there are currently hundreds and, as sites upgrade, will be thousands
of library Web sites that express "keywords" like:

* keywords: Linux.
* keywords: Internet programming.
* keywords: Web sites > Design.
* keywords: Electronic mail systems > Security measures.

This is because we augment the existing display of subject headings like
so:

<div property="keywords">
  <a href="search?email">Electronic mail systems</a> &gt; 
  <a href="search?email+security">Security measures.</a>
</div>

If we get a simple SKOS mechanism in schema.org, we can address that in
the software that doesn't adhere to the stricter "comma-separated list"
definition that has been proposed, but please be aware that there are
known sites that will not be adhering to that definition for some time
to come.

Overly long story short; how about a softened definition such as:

"Keywords or tags used to describe this content. Multiple entries in a
keywords list are typically delimited by commas."

That way, we would provide guidance to future implementations without
invalidating existing practice and making those implementers feel shamed
about their past decisions...

Received on Tuesday, 20 May 2014 14:00:21 UTC