[uf-new] Microformat for expressing uncertainty?

[Scott Reynen]

On Jul 31, 2007, at 11:26 AM, Manu Sporny wrote:

>> So in other words, we're talking about uncertainty in more than one
>> dimension, as expressed by a covariance matrix.
>
> Hi Charlie - to work on this, you would have to demonstrate a  
> number of
> places on the web that already publish information like this. How many
> websites out there publish numbers with associated covariance  
> matrices?
>
> Microformats don't try and invent new ways of publishing  
> information. If
> you can't find at least 10-20 examples of this happening on the  
> web, you
> are going to have a very hard time asking the community to spend  
> time to
> create the Microformat that you're proposing.

I agree that demonstrating broad community value is necessary if you  
want broad community participation.  That's just how people seem to  
work, and microformats formalize this to reduce wasted time.  But  
while it's naturally the focus of this community, broad community  
value isn't the only kind of value.  Disinterest here shouldn't be  
taken as a sign that something is worthless, only that this community  
is probably not the best place to pursue it.  There is plenty of  
value in standardizing HTML for individual people or organizations.   
And where this overlaps with the broader community efforts of  
microformats, i.e. where we can help, we're generally eager to do so.

The subject quest here is "Microformat for expressing uncertainty?"   
It seems the answer to that is probably no.  But rather than stopping  
there, I'd encourage you to ask a different question: "Plain old  
semantic HTML for expressing uncertainty?" I believe the answer to  
that is likely yes.

--
Scott Reynen
MakeDataMakeSense.com