Re: vocabs, metadata set, datasets

A few general comments re: our categories [1]:

-- I'd like for us to say more explicitly, up-front,
   that we are referring to things by these three handles --
   Dataset, Metadata Element Set, and Value Vocabulary -- based
   on their typical usage. And that as these things can be used
   in ways other than their "typical" usage, the categories are
   not, as Mark already puts it, "airtight".  As Mikael put
   it, the three handles are "not mainly used to categorize
   vocabularies but rather to analyze how vocabularies are
   used and combined in metadata application profiles".

-- I'm wondering if Dataset is simply a superset of Metadata
   Element Set and Value Vocabulary -- i.e., anything we
   typically think of as an MES or VV, when used in a metadata
   context for anything other than as a source of "elements"
   or "values" for a "record" (or "application profile"),
   would fall under the definition of Dataset.  Can anyone
   think of counter-examples?

-- I'm slightly bothered by the emphasis -- particularly (but not
   only) in the definition of Dataset -- on the notion of a
   "structured metadata record".  By this criterion, I'm
   guessing that many of the nodes in the Linked Open Data
   cloud would not qualify as Datasets simply because the
   data, while possibly derived from records, does not, when
   expressed as triples, consist explicitly of "records".

-- I'm thinking that the Library Terminology page might
   therefore include an entry on records, citing some of the
   key definitions of "record" used in library science.  That
   entry could be the place where the notion that a record is
   "basically a collection of statements about ... one entity"
   is called into question (by pointing out that in practice, records
   typically include some description about several entities).
   It could also provide a place to discuss the notion that
   descriptive metadata, in a Linked Data context, is primarily
   about description at the statement level, which is indeed
   what lends it so well to linking and recombination.  That
   entry could acknowledge the role of records in traditional
   library science of providing a context for the provenance of
   metadata and perhaps flag this as a crucial issue for Linked
   Data (and RDF generally).

Tom

[1] http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/wiki/Library_terminology_informally_explained#Vocabularies.2C_Element_sets.2C_Datasets
[2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lld/2010Dec/0023.html

-- 
Thomas Baker <tbaker@tbaker.de>

Received on Wednesday, 12 January 2011 03:56:01 UTC