RE: Proposed issue: site metadata hook

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ext Seairth Jacobs [mailto:seairth@seairth.com]
> Sent: 14 February, 2003 17:00
> To: www-tag
> Subject: Re: Proposed issue: site metadata hook
> 
> 
> 
> From: "Jeremy Dunck" <ralinon@hotmail.com>
> >
> >   However, there is a pressing need for retrieving metadata for a
> particular
> > site (and I'd say, for a particular URI), and that's why I 
> support the
> > proposed issue.
> 
> I agree with you.  There *is* a need for retrieving metadata 
> in an effective
> and standardized way.  But is timbl's proposal trying to take 
> up this task,
> or something more limited?  It's likely that a solution to 
> the metadata
> retrieval problem would also be a solution for the proposal's stated
> problem.  As a result, there's little point in focusing on 
> this one issue
> (URI identifier "ownership") if it's actually part of a bigger problem
> (metadata retrieval).
> 
> As I said, I would rather see the TAG put their energy 
> elsewhere,  even if
> it's into the task of standardized metadata retrieval.

I very much agree. In fact, this is what I've been trying to get this
thread to focus on -- the broader issue of how the SW relates to the
Web and how one gets descriptions of arbitrary resources, whether those
resources are a web site or something else.

I fear that we will end up with many small independent and yet
distinct mechanisms for doing various tasks when one single 
generic mechanism would serve all those tasks equally well or
better.

Let's work out how one asks about arbitrary resources, and then
just describe the various resources applications care about using
those generic mechanisms.

Let's not just create a "new and improved robots.txt" file. Rather,
let's define an RDF Schema for robot-specific knowledge and enable
owners to describe their own web spaces in terms of that schema
and robots to query the server about any resource, whether that be
the whole site, an individual web space, or a specific document. 

Patrick

Received on Tuesday, 18 February 2003 01:33:20 UTC