= DC-Government Application Profile (DC-GAP) =
== Scope ==
The concept of '''application profiles''' (see [http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue25/app-profiles/ Application profiles: mixing and matching metadata schemas]) has emerged within the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative as a way to declare which elements from which namespaces are used in a particular application or project. Application profiles are defined as schemas which consist of data elements drawn from one or more namespaces, combined together by implementors, and optimised for a particular local application.
The DCMI-government Working Group has explored various uses of the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set in governments and related applications and has envisioned the following possible uses; i.e. purpose and scope:
 * primarily for resource discovery of networked texts – but can also be used for discovery of other types of resources
 * to serve as an interchange format between various systems using different metadata standards/formats
 * to use for harvesting metadata from data sources within and outside of the government domain
 * to allow for acquiring resource discovery metadata from non-government creators using DC
So, the application profile should be used for describing all resources - especially networked resources. This means resources which are directly or indirectly accessed by the internet as e.g. electronic reports, documents, websites, services, events etc.

With the application profile it should be possible to discover and locate resources regardless of whether the resource itself is in an electronic format or not.

The application profile is not suited for describing people or organizations and is not intended to help with the management of resources.


A '''government application profile''' will be a specification that defines the following:
 * required elements
 * permitted Dublin Core elements
 * permitted Dublin Core qualifiers
 * permitted schemes and values (e.g. use of a specific controlled vocabulary or encoding scheme)
 * government domain elements used from another namespace
 * additional elements/qualifiers from other application profiles that may be used (e.g. DC-Education: Audience)
 * refinement of standard definitions
This document proposes a possible application profile that clarifies the use of the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set in governments and government-related applications and projects.