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

[Tim White]

--- Scott Reynen <scott at randomchaos.com> wrote:

> On Mar 29, 2006, at 11:15 PM, Ross Singer wrote:
> 
> > Explicitly stating what an item is a much sounder approach.
> 
> I agree.  What if I want to cite a photograph and all I know about it
>  
> is the photographer's name and the title of the photograph?

You cite the photographer's name and title of the photograph.
<cite><span class="photographer">Ansel Adams</span>, <span
class="title">Siesta Lake</span></cite>

I understand the desire to capture "type" metadata - I wanted to
include it for the longest time. But - from a microformats point of
view - we have to keep two things in mind:

1) Humans first, machines second. 
This means keeping everything visible, not trapped in metadata. If you
really want to note that it's a photo then include that: 

<cite>Photo <span class="title">Siesta Lake</span> by <span class="fn
photography">Ansel Adams</span>.</cite>

2) "Adapted to current behaviors and usage patterns." 
Microformats are suppose to be modeled on what people are currently
doing (80/20) on the web. I think of it in terms of the Everyman/woman.
Capturing metadata isn't what is happening by the 80. Look at the
examples collected on the wiki, very little metadata if any.
(http://microformats.org/wiki/citation-examples -- look to the Implied
Schema section)

I think things like marc records, OpenURL, Bibtex, etc. are actually
*too* specific for MF. If the library community needs something to
replace the existing standards, it'd be great if it was based off of a
microformat, but it shouldn't be the MF.



~ Tim

<a href="http://www.tjameswhite.com">www.tjameswhite.com</a>

<a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&amp;id=12227&amp;t=1">Get Firefox!</a>

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com