Public Comment on a DCMI vocabulary of domain and range classes
In connection with the revision of the DCMI Abstract Model, Andy Powell has developed a proposal for a vocabulary of classes and their use as the domains and ranges of DCMI-maintained metadata elements. Domains and ranges specify the nature of described resources in a form that is usable for inferencing. The assignment of formal domains and ranges makes the meanings implicit in natural-language definitions available for machine processing.
So as not to affect the conformance of legacy implementations of Simple Dublin Core in RDF (as explained in [1]), DCMI proposes to replicate the fifteen elements of the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set -- currently identified using the namespace http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/ -- in the namespace http://purl.org/dc/terms/. Terms in the former namespace are to remain unspecified as to domain and range; terms in the latter are to be assigned domains and ranges as outlined in the proposal.
This proposal has been posted for Public Comment from 5 February to 5 March 2007. Interested members of the public are invited to post comments to the DC-ARCHITECTURE mailing list [2] (with "Domains and ranges" in the Subject line). After Public Comment, the proposal will be submitted to the DCMI Usage Board for a further review and decision.
[1] http://dublincore.org/documents/2006/05/29/dc-rdf-notes/