[tdwg-tapir] tapir metadata issues

Jim Graham jim at nrel.colostate.edu
Fri Jun 29 15:52:25 CEST 2007


Greetings,

I understand making the dc:language optional but I'd be really concerned
about allowing the language code to be from different standards.  The
example for "SW" Wouter points out would be a real concern.  Can we have
mulitple language elements each of which is tied to a specific language code
standard?  This way we cannot make the type of mistake with "SW" being
missinterpreted as Swedish or Swahili.  

Thanks,
Jim

Jim Graham
Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80524
jim at nrel.colostate.edu
970-491-0410


-----Original Message-----
From: tdwg-tapir-bounces at lists.tdwg.org
[mailto:tdwg-tapir-bounces at lists.tdwg.org] On Behalf Of Wouter Addink
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 2:45 AM
To: tdwg-tapir at lists.tdwg.org
Subject: Re: [tdwg-tapir] tapir metadata issues

Renato,
thanks for your comments.

> - Make dc:language an optional element.
> - Change the cardinality of dc:language to "unbounded".
> - Change the recommendation about the content of dc:language by 
> including ethnologue codes as another option (probably the main 
> option). Note that it will still be just a recommendation, not a normative
statement.
>
Ok. Perhaps we should add an optional attribute also, for specifying the
used code standard, if any? That should not affect current implementations I
think. Problem is that you cannot do anything with an abbreviation if you do
not know what it means. Making assumptions can be dangerous. For instance
you could asume that "SW" means Swedish, or that it means Swahili. If you
know that it is an IANA subtag, you can use it and you can also raise an
error if there is an abbreviation which is not present in the used standard.

Another comment about the Tapir metadata: when giving courses in installing
Tapirlink, I noticed that none of the about 10 (Dutch) students could figure
out themselves what 'relatedEntity' means. They all needed help on that. 
Perhaps the documentation of that element should be expanded?

Cheers,
Wouter



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