Re: ACTION-62: Provide text about the virtue of using IDs

I'm fuzzy on the details, but I think it was decided on the F2F that
IDs would not be mandatory. Shortly after that, there was a suggestion
on the call that we stick to that decision for certain use cases (such
as POIs that are very transient or completely dynamic in nature) but
at least put some text in the draft encouraging the use of IDs in
every situation where it does make sense.

Perhaps someone from the F2F that argued against making IDs required
could expand upon this text to explain why IDs are not mandatory, to
provide a bit of balance (and prevent discussion afterwards)?

Jens

On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 3:39 PM, Raj Singh <rsingh@opengeospatial.org> wrote:
> Have we really chosen to make IDs for POIs optional? For the reasons you
> mention I think that's a bad idea.
>
> ---
> Raj
>
> On May 19, 2011, at 9:19 AM, Jens de Smit <jens@layar.com> wrote:
>
> Long overdue and not as refined as I wanted, but getting something out
> may be better than pondering on it for eternity
>
> -- 8< --
>
>
> We have chosen to make IDs for POIs optional. However, it is highly
> recommended to assign an ID to each POI, even if the initial intended
> use for the POIs does not require IDs at all. Assigning IDs to POIs
> makes the POI set immensely more useful and versatile. Without IDs, it
> is either very hard or impossible to uniquely identify a POI in a set.
> This in turn makes it impossible to reference a POI outside of its
> original context to work with it in any way. Basically, all that can
> be done with the POI is view it as a user as part of the set in which
> it resides.
>
> With an ID assigned to a POI, a slew of possibilities opens up. Users
> can single out POIs in a set to share with others, to bookmark, to
> subscribe to for receiving updates, etc. At a later state, the owner
> of a set of POIs can decide to do more with a set of POIs than just
> server it out, such as doing revision history, keep statistics or do
> POI set manipulation. Third party software can track, manipulate and
> aggregate (sets of) POIs when the have a unique identifier, creating
> new applications for existing data and thereby enhancing its
> usefulness. Assigning an ID to a POI also allows its original author
> to track it across different services, providing valuable information
> about how a POI is used.
>
> In short, a POI without an ID can only be used for its original
> intended purpose. Attaching an ID to a POI makes the POI findable for
> current applications and re-usable for future applications, greatly
> increasing its value. We therefore highly recommend attaching an ID to
> a POI, if at all possible.
>
>

Received on Thursday, 19 May 2011 13:47:24 UTC