Re: We need a META schema registry!

Nick Arnett wrote to www-talk@w3.org:
> 
> At 10:54 AM 3/18/97 -0500, Michael Mealling wrote:
> 
.
> 
> Here's an example of the breadth and depth of meta-information: every time a
> user saves a bookmark to a page, especially in a named subcategory, that's
> at least one piece of meta-information.  That categorization is usually
> valuable at least to the individual who created it, if not others.
> 
> Nick Arnett

Good point Nick.  In fact this is exactly the problem we are facing
trying to handle shared network objects for collaborative systems.  We
need meta information added by readers to be selectively sharable
(ratings, votes, catagorizations, annotations, activities etc.).

We see this as the next great challage for WWW-- truly collaborative
information on the web (participatory entropy reduction).  The web
already handels the data, now we need to manage information about the
data from multiple perspectives. See
http://eies.njit.edu/~jim/ais97.html

The Apple MCF format, http://mcf.research.apple.com, seems well suited
to this purpose since it provides for independent meta information (.mcf
files) applicable to any object not just HTML with zero overhead for
those not using meta info.

What will be needed is not only diretories of schema, but also fully
decentralized directories of selectively available meta information
(free meta servers?) with extensible schema.  

We will happily partner with those working in this area.

jim@njit.edu, http://www.njit.edu/CCCC/Staff/Whitescarver

Received on Tuesday, 18 March 1997 16:17:52 UTC