[dxwg] Notes on reviewing DCAT FPWD (#1275)

agreiner has just created a new issue for https://github.com/w3c/dxwg:

== Notes on reviewing DCAT FPWD ==
There is some interesting reading about possible uses of the term "version". I think it would be helpful to go a step further and clarify what our own definition of the term is. Moreover, I'm surprised, given the requirement to add support for versioning, that we do not seem to be ready to add a version term of our own. It's true that one can interpret the word to mean a handful of different things, but I don't think we solve the problem by simply reiterating the complexity and then telling people to do whatever works for them. I think that people who have asked for DCAT to support versions are asking that because they don't think that solution works.
If we will add such a term, the text should clearly state that and should define it narrowly. I'm worried about overlap with other concepts that people may add in a profile, like series. Obviously, one can't use the same term for all the things suggested, and there will be datasets that use more than one (e.g., series where one item is updated).
The one usage with which I disagree entirely is for languages. I don't believe that different language distributions are versions in the sense we're discussing, and I think that including that is potentially confusing.
Backward compatibility seems unhelpful for datasets, but helpful for software. I think it is a great idea to support metadata about software! If we support that, we should also think about supporting other aspects of software (e.g., language, OS compatibility).
Since schema.org is already supporting version as a term, and it is in some sense a child vocabulary, following what schema is doing would be helpful for compatibility with them.



Please view or discuss this issue at https://github.com/w3c/dxwg/issues/1275 using your GitHub account


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Received on Thursday, 12 November 2020 01:48:43 UTC