[microformats-discuss] Re: intro

[Edward Summers]

> If people are not publishing a certain kind of information on the  
> web yet,
> then IMHO it is premature to develop a microformat for it.
>
> This isn't a discouragement of your efforts.  I am merely trying to  
> make
> sure you're using the proper motivations.

Yes I understand (and relish) the "pave the cow-paths" philosophy,  
and it's why I think COinS might have some potential as a  
microformat. OpenURLs are widely used by publishers and libraries,  
and library software companies around the world. COinS is just a way  
to encode OpenURLs in HTML to enable third party use.

Just a couple examples of OpenURL usage:

- Crossref is an independent membership organization of 1466  
publishers, and is the official DOI registrar. They have a OpenURL  
resolver: http://www.crossref.org/openurl_info.html
- ExLibris' SFX the most popular commercial link resolver used in  
libraries around the world : http://www.exlibrisgroup.com/sfx.htm
- CUFTS a popular opensource OpenURL resolver developed at Simon  
Fraser University http://cufts.lib.sfu.ca/

And COinS:

- OpenInformatics Firefox Extension for extracting COinS http:// 
www.openly.com/openurlref/
- HubMed alternate interface to the PubMed Medical Database: http:// 
www.hubmed.org/ (do a search, view source, and search for z39.88.
- CiteUlike citation management software http://www.citeulike.org/

The hope is that we can leverage this work as a microformat to spread  
usage outside of the library world into the blogosphere and beyond.  
If anyone thinks this might have some potential I'll add some stuff  
to the wiki to get started.

//Ed