[uf-discuss] Citation format straw proposal on the wiki

[Alf Eaton]

On 28 Mar 2006, at 17:27, Michael McCracken wrote:

> Hi, so since we've got a large number of examples on the examples
> page, I think it's time to float an initial version of a citation
> microformat.
>
> I've put a suggestion up on the wiki at
> http://microformats.org/wiki/citation-brainstorming - I don't claim
> that it's complete - help fill it in, but keep in mind that we should
> start out simple. I think I've captured nearly enough to satisfy the
> 80/20 rule based on the examples we've got, and I think a majority of
> BibDesk users would be delighted with 50/50!
>
> I tried hard to think of it as a microformat first and resist the
> temptation to include everything I've seen in other bibliographic data
> formats. I think there's a real danger here of making it complicated
> enough that it's hard to adopt, possibly more so than with other
> microformats.
>
> I also don't claim to be any good at designing microformats - I just
> really want to see one, and a bad strawman has to be better than
> nothing at all. I'm eager to hear where I diverged from the design
> patterns, exhibited ignorance, or any other criticism.

Thanks for setting that up Mike, I'd like to see something finalised  
too. I think the main difficulty is defining the aims and uses for a  
citation microformat (and I agree with Ross that linking is probably  
the most important). Is the aim to be able to convert losslessly  
between a full citation format like MODS and microformatted XHTML, or  
does there just need to be enough information to identify the item?

Either way, here's the kind of thing I had in mind, just for a  
comparison to your straw man...

<div class="bibliography">
     <ol class="reference-list">
	<li class="citation reference book">
		<span class="title">Title of the Article</span>.
		<span class="creator name">Doe J</span> and
		<span class="creator name">Bloggs F</span>.
		<span class="container"> In
			<a class="uri" href="urn:isbn:45346327"/>
			<span class="title">Title of the Book</span>
			(<span class="year">1988</span>);
			<span class="editors">
				<span class="editor">John Green</span> and
				<span class="editor">Simon Brown</span> (Eds);
			</span>
			<span class="publisher">
				<span class="name">ABC Books</span>,
				<span class="location">New York</span>.
			</span>
		</span>. pp
		<span class="pages">
			<span class="start">33</span>-
			<span class="end">56</span>.
		</span>
	</li>
     </ol>
</div>

I guess there are some things in there that could become vcards, if  
you wanted.

alf.