[datacatalogs] Update re DCAT and catalog spec

Fri Oct 26 15:28:21 UTC 2012

On 26 October 2012 14:32, Richard Cyganiak <richard at cyganiak.de> wrote:
> Hi Rufus,
>
> In addition to what James said: The old issue regarding the naming of “Distribution” vs “Resource”, and what exactly a distribution/resource is, is still open.

Personally, I'm fairly agnostic here. I think distribution is "wrong"
but perhaps we could just go with the instances e.g. DataFile and
DataAPI / DataService and forget having a superclass (I think this is
almost what we reached last time - the issue was the property name but
one could just go for: dataFile and dataAPI or dataResource ...)

> Some in the working group feel that it's best to define this class narrowly and to refer only to means of accessing the dataset. Others feel that it should be broadened to include other material related to the dataset, such as documentation and examples.

I have to say I would now come down against documentation and
examples. If they are needed (which I'm not sure they are atm) we
could always invent something for them. In CKAN we now have idea of a
"Related Item" (e.g. Visualizations, News stories, Papers, and could
be Documentation). I think this makes more sense than lumping this in
with the data.

> I think there's a lot of uncertainty regarding what kinds of “resources” could be usefully related to a dataset. This somewhat mirrors the discussions regarding resource types around the Data Hub. The resource types currently defined in the spec are:
>
> - Download
> - Feed
> - Web service
> - Other (indirect access to the dataset through a form, etc.)
>
> Any new information on the general experience with resource types would be valuable feedback to the working group (public-gld-comments at w3.org). I could imagine that you have some new information there regarding CKAN and the Data Hub. Open questions are for example:
>
> - Is such a classification of resources useful at all?
> - Does one classification work for all catalogs or do they have different needs?
> - What types should be included or not included?

Let's keep it simple. I'd say DataFile (or DataDownload) and
WebService/DataAPI and you could even leave out the latter for the
time being.

Rufus

> All the best,
> Richard
>
>
>
>
> On 25 Oct 2012, at 21:02, James McKinney wrote:
>
>> This was actually the subject of today's Government Linked Data Working Group call [1, 2] and there's been much activity on the tracker [3] and the list [4].
>>
>> It was resolved to publish a new version of DCAT in 2 weeks [5], and most of your comments will make it in, based on the call.
>>
>> 1. http://www.w3.org/2011/gld/wiki/Meetings:Telecon20121025
>> 2. http://www.w3.org/2011/gld/meeting/2012-10-25
>> 3. http://www.w3.org/2011/gld/track/products/2
>> 4. http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-gld-wg/2012Oct/thread.html
>> 5. http://www.w3.org/2011/gld/meeting/2012-10-25#resolution_5
>>
>>
>> On 2012-10-25, at 2:16 PM, Rufus Pollock wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Phil,
>>>
>>> Just wondering if there were any updates re the discussion on DCAT and
>>> http://spec.datacatalogs.org/ following the detailed called back on
>>> 27th July. Would be nice to move this forward.
>>>
>>> Rufus
>>>
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