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TAG Product: Discovering Documentation for Individual URIs

DRAFT 2013-03-07 by JeniT

(Note: The problem to be solved has been stated and tracked under TAG issue 57. Some (but not all) proposals for addressing issue 57 would propose to re-open TAG issue 14 (httpRange-14), which although closed in 2005 continues to be a source of controversy.)

Goals

The goal of this work is to develop an architecture for the provision and discovery of documentation for the meaning and use of individual URIs. The ideal architecture would be simple, general, performant, consistent with the rest of Web architecture, and accepted by the Semantic Web and Linked Data communities.

It is not clear that this goal is achievable. An alternative direction for the TAG would be a considered decision to leave off pursuit of this project. That would not be a failure.

Success criteria

• Uptake
• Promotion of consistent use of URIs among the diverse RDF documents in which the URIs are used, to make data merges easier
• Consensus specification for easier deployment of documentation for individual 'hashless' URIs compared to 303 redirects, and/or broader acceptance of 'hash' URIs
• Consensus specification for more efficient deployment of URI documentation for individual 'hashless' URIs compared to 303 redirects, and/or broader acceptance of 'hash' URIs

• Well-reasoned termination of this work within the TAG

Key deliverables and dates

• February 2012: (a) call for httpRange-14 change proposals (done), (b) a document to act as a baseline against which change proposals are to be written (done)
• June 2013: PR(s) or similar document addressing the use of hashless URIs in data (and RDF in particular)

Schedule

• 29 Feb 2012: Call for change proposals
• 29 Mar 2012: End call for change proposals, analysis and development of proposals continues
• 2-4 Apr 2012: TAG F2F discussion
• 2 May 2012: Use case matrix prepared (announcement email)
• May-June 2012: Subset of TAG prepares evaluation of proposals
• 12-14 June 2012: TAG F2F Discussion
• 3 Oct 2012: Draft How to use URIs in data
• 8 Oct 2012: TAG F2F Discussion
• 7 Mar 2013 URIs in Data Primer

• 1 Apr 2013: FPWD (if Architectural Recommendation track is chosen)
• 1 Jun 2013: PR (if Architectural Recommendation track is chosen)

Draft

• URIs in Data Primer by Jeni Tennison

Other working documents

In reverse chronological order

• Proposal 27 background statement (in W3C wiki) 29 Sep 2012
• Proposal 27 (in W3C wiki) through September 2012
• HTTP URI Use Case Matrix (in W3C wiki) developed through June 2012 - analysis of proposals against use cases
• HTTP URI Use Cases (in W3C wiki) developed through June 2012
• Summaries of responses to call for change proposals (in W3C wiki) through May 2012
• Call for change proposals 29 Feb 2012 (email)
• Understanding URI Hosting Practice as Support for Documentation Discovery: Editor's draft 29 February 2012 (baseline for change proposals)
• Generic Resources and Web Metadata: Editor's draft 27 January 2012 by Jonathan A Rees (announcement email 17 May 2011)
• Interoperability of referential uses of hashless URIs by Jonathan A Rees (announcement email 22 Aug 2011)
• Providing and discovering URI Documentation by Jonathan A Rees (announcement email 25 June 2011)
• Review of TAG issues related to "URI meaning" (28 Feb 2011)

TAG members assigned

Jeni Tennison, Henry S. Thompson

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
• Discussion at June 2012 F2F
• Discussion at October 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 URIs are sometimes used to designate metadata subjects
• ISSUE-62 Uniform Access to Server-provided Metadata - this covers the special case of documentation for URIs referring to "information resources".

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
• ACTION-691 on Jonathan Rees to Prepare table as described in 2012-04-04 minutes, for TAG review - due 2012-04-24, CLOSED
• ACTION-749 on Jonathan Rees to With help from HT and JT to draft the TAG's response to the ISSUE-57 change proposal process initiated on 29 February 2012, based on http://www.w3.org/wiki/TagIssue57Proposal27/Background and F2F minutes of 8 October 2012 - due 2012-11-13, OPEN