Re: new text for Information Resource (section 3.1)

> At our F2F tin Basel this week, we spend a considerable time discussion=20
> the definition of "Information Resources". We developed new definitional=20
> text which the TAG reached concensus on at the beginning of Section 2.2=20
> [1] and quoted below.

An excellent bit of writing.   Bravo.   My comments are satisfied.

I expect somewhere down the line, the terms "essential
characteristics" and "essential character" will need more
explanation, but I believe they are sufficient for now.  

My sense is that a good explanation would approach the issue from the
question of utility: the essential characterists are those which are
useful to somebody.  For some applications, all the useful
characteristics of a dog can be transmitted in a message, but not for
*all* applications.  This suggests that as new uses for a resource are
discovered, one might come to understand it is not just an information
resource.

Some possible alternative text:

- The distinguishing characteristic of these resources is that all of
- their essential characteristics can be conveyed in a message.

+ The distinguishing characteristic of these resources is that one can 
+ in principle make complete use of them (for all their possible uses)
+ via a network. 

I'm not sure that this change, in itself, would be an improvement.
Probably more work in this area should wait for real issues to emerge,
if they ever do.   There may also be some useful connection with
Section 3 (Interaction), which I haven't read yet in this draft.

There is a trivial typo in 2.2.1, "when the movie /was/ created".

     -- sandro

Received on Saturday, 16 October 2004 08:38:12 UTC