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 metadata elements maintained by DCMI. Domains and ranges specify -- in a form usable for inferencing -- what kind of described resources and value resources are associated with a given property. 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 (see notes on this issue), 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. "Domains and Ranges for DCMI Properties" has been posted for Public Comment from 5 February through 5 March 2007. Interested members of the public are invited to post comments to the DC-ARCHITECTURE mailing list, including "[Domains and Ranges Public Comment]" in the subject line. After Public Comment, the proposal will be submitted to the DCMI Usage Board for a further review and decision.