Dear all,

There is a proposal to deprecate the Darwin Core Type vocabulary term dwctype:Location (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/type-vocabulary/index.htm#Location) and instead recommend the Dublic Core equivalent http://purl.org/dc/terms/Location.

Dublin Core has a broader scope than Darwin Core, and the Darwin Core term was created for reasons that no longer apply.

Specifically, the Darwin Core Location term was created because the Dublin Core Location term was not a Dublin Core type vocabulary term. At the time, Darwin Core tried to use a combination of Dublin Core and Darwin Core types as values for the basisOfRecord field, and wanted them all to be in type vocabularies. This isn't necessary.

As this is a substantive semantic change (a term deprecation and new recommendation to take its place), we must follow the Darwin Core Namespace Policy's Term Change Policy, section 3.3, Semantic changes in Darwin Core terms, which includes a minimum 30-day public comment period beginning today.

The issue is further described on the Darwin Core Project issue tracker at https://code.google.com/p/darwincore/issues/detail?id=173. The proposal would deprecate the dwctype:Location in favor of a dcterms:Location with the following definition:

Term Name: Location Identifier: http://purl.org/dc/terms/Location Namespace: http://purl.org/dc/terms/ Label: Location Definition: A spatial region or named place. Comment: For discussion see http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/DwCTypeVocabulary (there will be no further documentation here until the term is ratified) Type of Term: http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Class Status: proposed Date Issued: 2009-01-23 Date Modified: 2013-09-30 Has Domain: Has Range: Refines: Version: http://dublincore.org/usage/terms/history/#Location-001 Replaces: Location-2009-01-23 IsReplaceBy: Class: ABCD 2.0.6: not in ABCD (someone please confirm or deny this)

If there are any objections this proposed change, please respond to this message. If there are no objections or if consensus can be reached on any amendments put forward, the proposal will go before the Executive Committee for authorization to put these additions into effect after the public commentary period.

Cheers,

John