The DDR Core Vocabulary Process

• View the latest CoreVocabularySubmissions and archived comments.
• Discuss these submissions on the dedicated public mailing list. public-ddr-vocab@w3.org (Join list)
• View the most recent version of the CoreVocabulary
• Before submitting new properties, take a look at the draft ontology

How to contribute

Before submitting a property for consideration in the DDR Core Vocabulary, ensure that you have the appropriate access rights.

• If you are part of an organization that is a Member of the W3C, then your Advisory Committee representative can give you details of how to access W3C resources. Once you have access, you can go directly to the form.
• If you are a member of the public, or an external organization that is not a W3C Member, you will need a (free) W3C Account. Indicate when you apply for this account that you are doing so in order to answer the DDWG Vocabulary Questionnaire.
• If you prefer not to use the above methods, you can send an email with your contribution directly to the DDWG members. Use the text version as a template. The email will be handled by the list moderator, though we cannot guarantee a timely response due to the volume of unsolicited email that arrives on the list.

Note, you can use the questionnaire form more than once if you have several properties to contribute. Each submission is recorded by the group as a separate email on their internal mailing list. Group members will summarize the information via the wiki.

Please read the form carefully. The DDWG is looking for contributions to the DDR Core Vocabulary. The purpose of this vocabulary is to represent the device properties that are considered essential to adapting Web content for mobile devices. If you believe you can identify a device property that meets the criteria and it has not already been identified, please consider submitting it to the DDWG for consideration.

If you are unsure about the process, or want some help with a device property you are considering for submission, please use the public mailing list. public-ddr-vocab@w3.org

For your information, here is a summary of how the process operates.

Updating the DDR Core Vocabulary

This is the lightweight process by which the DDR Core Vocabulary will evolve.

• a) SUBMIT A public Online Submission Form is provided to suggested vocabulary entries.
  1. the submission should provide at minimum the description of what entry is being requested:
     • A description of the property, with as much precision as possible.
     • The units with which one measures the property (or range of values, or whatever is appropriate).
     • The data type to use (e.g. non-zero integer).
     • Justification for the property being in the core vocabulary.
• b) the submission could include the ontology definition (using Protege Ontology Editor), but as this may be seen as particularly technical, it will be left to the DDWG members to transform the informal submission into a formal submission in RDF/OWL.
• c) EVALUATE The group will receive the request, evaluate it, discuss it
  1. the group may contact the individual or company that requested the entry for more explanations
  2. a public mailing list public-ddr-vocab@w3.org is used to discuss submissions with the wider community
• d) DECIDE The group will consider if and how the entry should be created
• e) EDIT The group will create a new entry in the vocabulary using a tool such as Protégé to edit the ontology
• f) PUBLISH The group will add the entry to the Core Vocabulary and publish this update via the W3C Web site.

Comments

The group referred to here is the W3C Device Descriptions Working Group (DDWG) under its second charter. The process defined here may outlive the lifetime of the group and the group may make arrangements to hand over operation of the process to some other group.

The submission process should accommodate verification of the submission. The results of the group's evaluation of the request will be notified to the originator.

SUBMIT: The group will most likely receive a lot of requests during its charter. There should be a period, around the end of life of the group in which the group might review the entire vocabulary and drop entries that are not considered core, too similar to others or try to merge, group or review entries requested in the past.

EDIT: what happens here is simply the creation of the entry using a tool such as the Protege Ontology Editor. This will provide the strong data typing that is required for this vocabulary and will also provide the ease of a visual tool to produce the human-unreadable, but machine-friendly RDF ontology definition of the entry.

PUBLISH: Once all this is done, using Protégé anyone will be able to download the full vocabulary, browse it, check it and fit it into a database or application and use a DDR that will be defined in the other group Note and Recommendations.

History

The initial draft of the process was sent to the mailing list on Feb, 26 2007 by Andrea Trasatti. The thread can be followed on the web archive of the public list. Initial e-mail is available, "Vocabulary process kick-start"

The intention to launch the process was announced in May 2007.

The process was activated in June, with submissions coming initially from OMA. The public announcement of the process was made on 11 June 2007 via this wiki and the public mailing list.