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2006-03-31

The DCMI Usage Board announces the beginning of a comment
period for a number of editorial revisions to labels,
definitions and comments for the original 15 elements, plus
revisions to definitions and comments for several of the
terms in the DCMIType Vocabulary.  

Recognizing the problems inherent in a decade-long legacy
of practice, the Board has undertaken a general cleanup and
reconciliation of terminology, capitalization, and style
that had accumulated since the submission of the original 15
elements for standardization within NISO and ISO.  

In addition, improvements of definitional conformance to the
1:1 rule were included, in particular, the elimination of the
usage of the wording "content of a resource" which appeared to
undercut the rule.  

Some changes were made to reduce overlap of definitions, based
on experiences of implementers and the confusion that had been
noted in application as the continuing refinement of terms
tended to highlight anomalies and problems in definitions.

In reviewing and suggesting changes in these areas, the Usage
Board hopes to create a more solid foundation for moving
forward with Application Profiles and improved metadata
description as well as to reflect our improved understanding
of the needs of current and prospective implementors.

Comments from the community are encouraged, both in general
concerning the changes as a whole and on particular changes. To
comment on individual changes, please separate the comments
into individual messages to enable clearer threading on the
list archive.