Re: New TAG issue: genericResources-53

Pat Hayes writes:

> Yes, I had seen that, thanks. However, this piece of writing is
> now very old, and the notion of 'resource' it uses does not 
> seem to correspond to the way that this word has been used more
> recently, particularly by the TAG. 

> Well, OK, though I have to tell you that if this is the best 
> y'all can do, you havn't yet managed to make this sense very 
> clear to others. But thanks for trying :-)

Yes, but perhaps it's not clear where we are in the process.  Certainly I 
don't think we're at the point of claiming to make anything clear to 
anyone, except insofar as Tim did so years ago. 

There has on some recent TAG telcons been very general discussion around 
some of the issues that arise when one, for example, wants to make the 
same resource conveniently accessible from both mobile and larger devices. 
 The same discussions touched briefly on resources translated into 
different languages (e.g. English & French), and a few related situations 
in which the same URI might serve representations with different form or 
content.   All the TAG has done is to decide to open an issue so that we 
can discuss these things.  We needed a name and those familiar with Tim's 
earlier DesignIssues not suggested that "Generic Resource" as he discussed 
it was close enough to be an evocative short name for the issue.  The note 
you saw was announcing the addition of the issue to our issues list. 
So, while I think your insights are important and useful, the TAG has just 
begun the process of deciding what if anything we actually want to do in 
this space.  Opening the issue gives us the formal framework for those 
discussions.  In particular, I don't think we've yet formally decided that 
the term Generic Resource is appropriate for anything except in the issue 
name itself, and we certainly have not yet attempted to clarify or 
rigorously define that term.  I'm sure your input will be very helpful as 
we start more serious discussion, perhaps at the upcoming face to face 
meeting. 

Thank you.

--------------------------------------
Noah Mendelsohn 
IBM Corporation
One Rogers Street
Cambridge, MA 02142
1-617-693-4036
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Received on Friday, 2 June 2006 02:01:19 UTC