[uf-discuss] [Zen of Microformats] Two Fundamental Principles of Information Design

[Ara Pehlivanian]

On 3/8/07, Costello, Roger L. <costello at mitre.org> wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> Through intense study of Microformats I have come to enlightenment
> regarding information design:
>
> Two Fundamental Principles of Information Design
>
> 1. Design information to be resolutely specific and local.
>
> 2. Design information to be globally and collectively useful.
>
> Example: consider a web designer that embeds a family name in an HTML
> <li> element, e.g.,
>
> <li>Costello</li>
>
> A second web designer embeds a family name in an HTML <div> element,
> e.g.,
>
> <div>Novak</div>
>
> A third web designer embeds a family name in an XML <informant>
> element, e.g.,
>
> <informant>Smith</informant>
>
> A fourth web designer embeds a family name in an XML <pilot> element,
> e.g.,
>
> <pilot>Johnson</pilot>
>
> A fifth web designer embeds a family name in an RSS <managingEditor>
> element, e.g.,
>
> <managingEditor>Parker</managingEditor>
>
> Each of these web designers are expressing the family name information
> in a way that is resolutely specific and local, i.e., in a way that is
> appropriate for his/her needs.
>
> However, the information is not globally and collectively useful:
> without a-priori knowledge a web tool cannot ascertain that the
> information within the elements represents a person's family name.
>
> That's where Microformats come into the picture.  Add the hCard
> "family-name" subproperty to each local expression:
>
> <li class="family-name">Costello</li>
>
> <div class="family-name">Novak<div>
>
> <informant class="family-name">Smith</informant>
>
> <pilot class="family-name">Johnson</pilot>
>
> <managingEditor class="family-name">Parker</managingEditor>
>
> Now the information is resolutely specific and local; simultaneously,
> it is globally and collectively useful.
>
> Comments?
>
> /Roger
>
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>

Roger,

Very clearly articulated. Kudos. I think that the only thing that
might be missing there (and maybe I'm just stating the obvious) is the
need to express which convention you're applying when using the class
value "family-name", i.e. Microformats. That way there won't be any
confusion in situations when for example, a product manufacturer
releases a list of their products "by family" and marks up their
content with the class "family-name", which isn't intended as a
Microformat and could be confused by a consuming agent. Perhaps a
namespace/schema is required to round off your example.

What say you?

A.