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TAG Product: URI Documentation Discovery

DRAFT 2012-02-11 by JAR, with new success criteria, and schedule back one month

Goals

The goal is to develop a URI documentation provision and discovery architecture that is simple, general, performant, consistent with Web architecture, and accepted by the linked data community. In other words, the goal is to "drive the httpRange-14 issue to a conclusion" (note that httpRange-14 itself was formally closed, but what it proposes continues to be controversial and incompletely deployed; the continuing concerns are tracked in Tracker under ISSUE-57)

Success criteria

• Uptake
• Technical interoperability of RDF used for metadata with RDF used for linked data
• Consensus specification for easier deployment of URI documentation for 'hashless' URIs compared to 303 redirects, and/or broader acceptance of 'hash' URIs
• Consensus specification for more efficient deployment of URI documentation for 'hashless' URIs compared to 303 redirects, and/or broader acceptance of 'hash' URIs

Key deliverables and dates

• December 2011: (a) draft call for httpRange-14 change proposals, (b) a working-draft-like document to act as a baseline against which change proposals are to be written
• August 2012: PR(s) or similar document covering the following:
  1. URI documentation discovery architecture
  2. ontology (RDF vocabulary) as needed
• August 2012: TAG Note or similar document on semantics of metadata for 'information resources' (perhaps part of the PR)

Schedule

• 20 Jun 2011: Revise the two issue-57 drafts, put out for review on semantic-web and/or LOD lists
• 31 Dec: First editor's draft of potential arch. rec. (baseline)
• 31 Dec: Draft call for change proposals to same
• 17 Feb 2012: Call for change proposals to same
• 17 Mar: End call for change proposals to same, collaborative development of proposals continues
• 12 Apr: End development of change proposals, TAG deliberation on content of TAG proposal continues
• 20 Apr: Go/no-go decision regarding Architectural Recommendation track
• 20 Apr: End development of change proposals, TAG deliberation on content of TAG proposal ends
• 30 Apr: FPWD for Architectural Recommendation or equivalent (note: TPAC 2012 publication freeze is mid-October)
• 31 May: Working Draft or equivalent
• 30 Jun: "Town meeting" if required
• 31 Aug: PR or equivalent

Drafts

• Understanding URI Hosting Practice as Support for Documentation Discovery: Editor's Draft 10 February 2012 (baseline for change proposals) [dated snapshot TBD]
• Generic Resources and Web Metadata: Editor's Draft 27 January June 2012 by Jonathan A Rees (announcement email 17 May 2011)

Other working documents

• Proposal for a call for change proposals to the baseline (see announcement e-mail 19 Dec 2011 from Jonathan) — NOTE: this e-mail reference to be replaced with link to actual change proposal call if/when that is circulated
• Providing and discovering URI Documentation by Jonathan A Rees (announcement email 25 June 2011) (still ongoing as of 2 Feb 2012)
• Interoperability of referential uses of hashless URIs by Jonathan A Rees (announcement email 22 Aug 2011)
• Review of TAG issues related to "URI meaning" (28 Feb 2011)

TAG members assigned

Jonathan Rees

Relevant discussion of process

• Discussion at June 2011 F2F
• JAR's proposed process (6 Nov 2011)
• TAG teleconference discussion on 22 December 2011
• Discussion at January 2012 F2F

TAG issues

• ISSUE-57 Mechanisms for obtaining information about the meaning of a given URI
• ISSUE-14 What is the range of the HTTP dereference function? (closed)
• ISSUE-63 Metadata Architecture for the Web - the connection is tangential; relevant only in that the use of URIs to designate metadata subjects is in conflict with one proposed documentation discovery mechanism
• ISSUE-62 Uniform Access to Server-provided Metadata - this covers different, but potentially overlapping, use cases - generally speaking, description of a resource (usually an information resource), as opposed to URI documentation.

TAG actions

• ACTION-624: on - Jonathan Rees - Draft for TAG consideration a call for httpRange-14 change proposals - Due: 2011-12-31 - CLOSED
• ACTION-625: on - Noah Mendelsohn - Schedule followup discussion of http://www.w3.org/wiki/HttpRange14Options (per agreement in Santa Clara) - Due: 2011-12-21 - CLOSED