Comments on Raman's "On Linking Alternative Representations To Enable Discovery And Publishing"

Noah, Thanks for these detailed comments.

I've addressed all of them except for the one about facets.

Reasoning:

I think rather than implying that the Web breaks up into multiple
pieces, the term "facets" here conveys the acceptance that there 
is in fact a threat of the Web splintering, and that viewing the
various "Webs" as facets of a larger whole 
is in fact a means to avoid such a split. This is why I believe
 it is really important to capture the  --- via the hyperlink
 structure of the Web -- the relationship amongst various
 alternative representations of the same content.

noah_mendelsohn@us.ibm.com writes:
 > These are comments on the August 8 2006 draft of "On Linking Alternative 
 > Representations To Enable Discovery And Publishing"[1]  (note that its 
 > title page says the date is 01 08 2006, which is the non-US convention for 
 > dates).
 > 
 > I think it's mostly just fine and ready to go, except for some editorial 
 > suggestions listed below.  All of these are minor, and I'd leave it to 
 > Raman to decide which if any to accept. 
 > 
 > The two comments that are a bit more significant are:
 > 
 > Substantive comments
 > --------------------
 > 
 > Chapter 2.3.1:
 > Currently says:  "Pointers to alternative content are encoded as link 
 > elements, and the same mechanism is used within RSS/ATOM feeds to 
 > advertize permalinks and other pointers to make them discoverable."
 > 
 > First of all, I think you mean same mechanism "as within RSS/ATOM feeds". 
 > More importantly, this presumes that readers know how RSS and ATOM do 
 > this.  I'm not sure that's a fair assumption even today, and we don't know 
 > whether RSS and ATOM will be current technologies through the useful life 
 > of this finding.  I'd explain in a bit more detail.
 > 
 > Chapter 3:
 > When creating a multiplicity of URIs for a given canonical resource, 
 > ensure that the relationship amongst these multiple URIs is captured in a 
 > machine-readable form.
 > 
 > [I think you mean, make sure you can crawl your way through a fully 
 > connected link graph.  As written, it seems to imply that all sorts of 
 > machine readable descriptions of the relationship, including possibly 
 > nonstandard-format documentation, might be acceptable.  For example, if 
 > XYZNews documents that:
 > 
 > "To get the French version of any of our articles, append "-French" to the 
 > URI" isn't what you meant at all. 
 > 
 > Editorial comments:
 > -------------------
 > 
 > Chapter 1: Some hesitancy about the term "facets" of the Web, which seems 
 > to overemphasize separation into sub-Webs.
 > 
 > Chap 2.1: 
 > Current: If publishing URIs for the reesource and its various 
 > representations
 > Suggested: If publishing distinct URIs for the reesource and its various 
 > representations .   [Adds word distinct, fixes spelling of reesource]
 > 
 > Chap 2.1.1: 
 > Current: Serve a canonical representation of the content at 
 > http://example.com/ubiquity/resource
 > Suggested: If no content negotation is employed, serve a canonical 
 > representation of the content at http://example.com/ubiquity/resource
 > [Reason: you are actually serving all the representations through 
 > redirects from the main URI]
 > 
 > Current: Use HTTP content-negotiation, along with the correct HTTP VARY
 > Suggested: With that same URI, Use HTTP content-negotiation, along with 
 > the correct HTTP VARY
 > 
 > Current: This is a temporary redirect,  -> This is a temporary redirect; 
 > the [correct punctation is semicolon+; also added word "the"]
 > 
 > Chap 2.2.1:
 > Current: Each language version contains pointers to available languages.
 > Suggested: Each language version contains links to URI's that serve 
 > representations in all the other available languages. 
 > 
 > Current: Since these translations are typically for human consumption, 
 > they are encoded as HTML a elements so that they get displayed in 
 > browsers.
 > Suggeted: Since these translations are typically for human consumption, 
 > the links are encoded as HTML a elements so that they get displayed in 
 > browsers.  [it's the links that are encoded, not the translations I think]
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > --------------------------------------
 > Noah Mendelsohn 
 > IBM Corporation
 > One Rogers Street
 > Cambridge, MA 02142
 > 1-617-693-4036
 > --------------------------------------
 > 
 > 

-- 
Best Regards,
--raman

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Received on Thursday, 7 September 2006 22:44:49 UTC