Broaden Offer usage

Status: Proposed to public-vocabs and accepted for schema.org 1.0f release

Reviewing schema.org/Offer for non-commercial usage

Currently, the definitions of Offer and its properties and related types are overly focused on commercial activities, whereas the broader web includes offers that are non-commercial. Examples of non-commercial offers that would benefit from a broader set of definitions include loaning items from a public library; making tickets to events available on a first-come, first-served basis; and “free-cycling” goods to local community members.

Thus, what follows are a set of proposed changes to broaden the definitions to welcome non-commercial usage of the same types and properties. For the most part, only the definitions of types and properties need to be changed to remove the overly specific "for sale" clauses. However, one new property, http://schema.org/offerer, has been proposed as an equivalent of the http://schema.org/seller property.

http://schema.org/Offer

Proposal: Modify definition
Current: An offer to sell an item—for example, an offer to sell a product, the DVD of a movie, or tickets to an event.
Proposed: An offer to transfer some rights to an item or to provide a service--for example, an offer to sell tickets to an event, to rent the DVD of a movie, to stream a TV show over the internet, to repair a motorcycle, or to loan a book.

http://schema.org/itemOffered

Proposal: Modify definition
Current: The item being sold.
Proposed: The item being offered.

http://schema.org/seller

The property name itself is the limiting factor.

Proposal: Add the more generic http://schema.org/offerer with the definition: "The organization or person making the offer." and instruct schema.org processors to treat it as equivalent to http://schema.org/seller.

http://schema.org/AggregateOffer

Proposal: Modify definition
Current: When a single product that has different offers (for example, the same pair of shoes is offered by different merchants), then AggregateOffer can be used.
Proposed: When a single product is associated with multiple offers (for example, the same pair of shoes is offered by different merchants), then AggregateOffer can be used.
Rationale: Purely grammatical!

http://schema.org/Discontinued

Proposal: Modify definition
Current: Indicates that the item for sale has been discontinued.
Proposed: Indicates that the item has been discontinued.

http://schema.org/InStock

Proposal: Modify definition
Current: Indicates that the item for sale is in stock.
Proposed: Indicates that the item is in stock.

http://schema.org/InStoreOnly

Proposal: Modify definition
Current: Indicates that the item for sale is available only in brick-and-mortar stores.
Proposed: Indicates that the item is available only at physical locations.

http://schema.org/OnlineOnly

Proposal: Modify definition
Current: Indicates that the item for sale is available only online.
Proposed: Indicates that the item is available only online.

http://schema.org/OutOfStock

Proposal: Modify definition
Current: Indicates that the item for sale is out of stock.
Proposed: Indicates that the item is out of stock.

http://schema.org/PreOrder

Proposal: Modify definition
Current: Indicates that the item for sale is available for pre-order.
Proposed: Indicates that the item is available for pre-order.

http://schema.org/OfferItemCondition

Proposal: Modify definition
Current: A list of possible conditions for the item for sale.
Proposed: A list of possible conditions for the item.

http://schema.org/DamagedCondition

Proposal: Modify definition
Current: Indicates that the item for sale is damaged.
Proposed: Indicates that the item is damaged.

http://schema.org/NewCondition

Proposal: Modify definition
Current: Indicates that the item for sale is new.
Proposed: Indicates that the item is new.

http://schema.org/RefurbishedCondition

Proposal: Modify definition
Current: Indicates that the item for sale is refurbished.
Proposed: Indicates that the item is refurbished.

http://schema.org/UsedCondition

Proposal: Modify definition
Current: Indicates that the item for sale is used.
Proposed: Indicates that the item is used.

http://schema.org/Product

Proposal: Modify definition
Current: A product is anything that is made available for sale—for example, a pair of shoes, a concert ticket, or a car. Commodity services, like haircuts, can also be represented using this type.
Proposed: Any offered product or service. For example: a pair of shoes; a concert ticket; the rental of a car; a haircut; or an episode of a TV show streamed online.

http://schema.org/offers

Proposal: Modify definition
Current: An offer to sell this item—for example, an offer to sell a product, the DVD of a movie, or tickets to an event.
Proposed: An offer to provide this item—for example, an offer to sell a product, rent the DVD of a movie, or give away tickets to an event.