[uf-discuss] Citation: next steps?

[Bruce D'Arcus]

On 9/21/06, Michael McCracken <michael.mccracken at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think the ROLE attribute of vcard means something different than
> what you guys were describing with a role.
>
> You were saying role = "what this person's relationship to the cited work is"

Right. The vCard role specifies a relation between an agent and an organization.

Contribution roles specify a relation between an agent and a cited work.

So:

book --> creator --> Agent --> role ---> Organization

Let's put it this way:

In a relational database, you'd have three tables: resources,
contributions, agents. Role is a column in the second.

But I think for a uF, the easiest thing to do is something like:

<span class="contributor">
   <span class="fn vcard">Jane Doe</span>
   <span class="role">translator</span>
</span>

Alternately:

<span class="contributor">
   <span class="vcard">
      <span class="fn">Jane Doe</span>
   </span>
   <span class="role">translator</span>
</span>

Which is to say the role here is not a characteristic of the contact
agent per se.

Bruce