[uf-discuss] Regarding Profile URIs and Disambiguation (was Comments from IBM/Lotus rep about Microformats)

[Mike Schinkel]

brian suda wrote:
> It is possible for me to start creating a CSS style called 
> 'vcard', but a parser would know that this is a style and not 
> semantics because of the lack of a profile URI. Eventually, 
> as microformats become more popular,  the profile URI is used 
> to disambiguate random styles with intended semantic values.

Thanks for the reply. Someone previously mentioned to me on this list that
Profile URIs were a solution. Yet when I asked about them I interpreted the
answer that I got back to indicate they allowed a specific microformat to be
identified, but not to have two or more to be explicitly disambiguated. 

Since I apparently misunderstood how Profile URIs work, can you please mark
up my example, repeated below [1], to indicate how a Profile URI might be
used to disambiguate my example?  I would definitely appreciate it.

> So far this isn't a problem, and to save time and effort we 
> are focusing on the more important things. 

I do appreciate the need to prioritize; I can really empathize with that.
However, please understand that I am working on a project where
disambiguation IS a problem (a major problem, actually.)

> microformats are not "squatting" on terms.

Forgive me if I used a term that came across as distasteful; that was not my
intention. Nonetheless microformats do make use of a scare resource, that
being the HTML "class" attribute and a few other attributes. Hence there is
an inherent likelihood of name clashes that can render an HTML content
author unable to use two conflicting microformats in the same document
unless of course Profile URI resolves those ambiguities. I do look forward
to your clarification on Profile URIs.

-- 
-Mike Schinkel
http://www.mikeschinkel.com/blogs/
http://www.welldesignedurls.org/


[1] Looking at ADR, here is an example:

<div class="adr">
 <div class="street-address">665 3rd St.</div>  
 <div class="extended-address">Suite 207</div>  
 <span class="locality">San Francisco</span>,  
 <span class="region">CA</span>  
 <span class="postal-code">94107</span>  
<div class="country-name">U.S.A.</div> </div>

Now let's say I want to use something called "RegionData" where Regions are
heirarchical:

<div class="region-data">
 <div class="region street" title="child-of-city">665 3rd St.; Suite
207</div>
 <span class="region city" title="child-of-state">San Francisco</span>,  
 <span class="region state" title="child-of-country">CA</span>
 <span class="post-code">94107</span>
 <div class="region country" title="child-of-continent">U.S.A.</div>
</div>

Now, someone needs to use both:

<div class="region-data vcard">
 <div class="region street" title="child-of-city">
  <div class="street-address">665 3rd St.</div>
  <div class="extended-address">Suite 207</div>  
 </div>  
 <span class="region city locality" title="child-of-state">San
Francisco</span>,
 <span class="region state region"  title="child-of-country">CA</span>

 <span class="post-code postal-code">94107</span>  
 <div class="region country country-name"
title="child-of-continent">U.S.A.</div>
</div>

How to disambiguate with Profile URI? (Please make the assumption that the
developer of region-data knew nothing of vcard when region-data was
published.)