<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV><FONT color=#000080><FONT face=Arial size=2>I was surprised at how difficult it was to find a good definition of <SPAN class=146232220-15092005>the word "microformat". </SPAN>Most <SPAN class=146232220-15092005>attempted explanations</SPAN>, like </FONT><A href="http://microformats.org/about/"><FONT face=Arial size=2>http://microformats.org/about/</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=2>,  reads more like marketing literature discussing its philosophy. <SPAN class=146232220-15092005>Saying that</SPAN> it's "a way of thinking about data" or that it's "an evolutionary revolution" doesn't give many clues to help determine whether a given format qualifies as a microformat.</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000080 size=2>The Wikipedia definition echoes the microformats.org/about one by calling microformats a "set of data formats", but I can't find a definition of what constitutes membership in that set--that is, a definition of the singular form of the term. </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000080 size=2>Here's my attempt: A microformat is the extension of a subset of a popular XML schema to incorporate semantic information for a particular domain, thereby allowing the use of information from that domain with tools built around the popular schema.  </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000080 size=2>Corrections? Revisions? </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000080 size=2><SPAN class=146232220-15092005>thanks,</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000080 size=2><SPAN class=146232220-15092005></SPAN></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000080 size=2><SPAN class=146232220-15092005>Bob DuCharme   <A href="http://www.snee.com/bob">www.snee.com/bob</A>       <bob@  <BR>snee.com> weblog on linking-related topics: <BR><A href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/1191">http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/1191</A></SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000080 size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000080 size=2><SPAN class=146232220-15092005></SPAN></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>