Microformats Wiki - User contributions [en]

hnews-examples-in-wild

2009-10-20T16:27:43Z

MilesD: /* New Examples */

<h1>hNews Examples in the wild </h1>
This page is an '''informative''' section of the [[hnews|hNews]] specification.

The following sites have published [[hnews|hNews]], and thus are a great place to start for anyone looking for examples "in the wild" to try parsing, indexing, organizing etc.

If you publish hNews on your own site, feel free to add it to the '''top''' of this list. Please be sure to include at least one URL to a page on your site that includes actual [[hnews|hNews]] markup. Examples added without a URL to a page with hNews markup may be removed.

== New Examples ==
[http://news.aol.com AOL News]
*http://news.aol.com/article/runoff-ordered-for-afghanistan/720595

[http://gnn.com Good News Now]
*http://www.gnn.com/article/patrick-ivison-and-dog-ricochet-surf-to/720774

[http://smallbusiness.aol.com/startup The Start Up]
*http://smallbusiness.aol.com/startup/article/entrepreneur-draws-her-own-path/703611

hnews-issues

2009-10-20T14:05:12Z

MilesD: /* Open Issues */

<h1> hNews issues </h1>

These are externally raised issues about [[hnews|hNews]] with broadly varying degrees of merit. Thus some issues are REJECTED for a number of obvious reasons (but still documented here in case they are re-raised), and others contain longer discussions. Some issues may be ACCEPTED and perhaps cause changes or improved explanations in the draft.

'''IMPORTANT''': Please read the [[hnews-faq|hNews FAQ]] before giving any feedback or raising any issues as your feedback/issues may already be resolved/answered.

Submitted issues may (and probably will) be edited and rewritten for better terseness, clarity, calmness, rationality, and as neutral a point of view as possible. Write your issues well. — [http://tantek.com/ Tantek]

Please add new issues to the '''top''' of the list. Please follow-up to resolved/rejected issues with new information rather than resubmitting such issues. Duplicate issue additions will be reverted.

See related [[hatom-issues]] and [[hcard-issues]].

== Template ==

{{issues-format}}

__TOC__

== Issues ==
=== Open Issues ===

<div class="hentry">
{{OpenIssue}} <span class="entry-summary author vcard"><span class="published">2009-10-20</span> raised by <span class="fn">[[User:MilesD|Miles De Feyter]]</span></span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">News, Commentary, and Opinion pieces as they relate to hNews</strong>. An interesting comment came up today when looking at how to use hNews on other AOL properties outside of our main news site, and that is, some of our sites are both news and commentary. Let's take our sports site for example http://www.fanhouse.com/

This site reports on sports news with article headlines such as:
[http://www.fanhouse.com/news/nfl/big-ben-tops-pass-rankings/723353 Big Ben tops pass rankings]

But fanhouse.com also has some obvious opinion pieces such as:
[http://kevin-blackistone.fanhouse.com/2009/10/19/ail-to-the-redskins-worst-run-franchise-on-the-planet/ Fail to the Redskins: Worst-Run Franchise on the Planet]

Currently we have one publishing system for all of our content within Fanhouse whether it be feed driven, in house publisher, news content, or commentary. So at the moment if one thing gets hNews it all does.

Have you given this situation thought? My initial thinking is that perhaps this is where a principles statement specific to Fanhouse could account for the different types of content being labeled hNews.
</div>

<div class="hentry">
{{ResolvedIssue}} <span class="entry-summary author vcard"><span class="published">2009-10-15</span> raised by <span class="fn">[[User:TobyInk|TobyInk]]</span></span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">XMDP defines 'principles' incorrectly.</strong> The XMDP for hNews defines 'principles' as a class, whereas the rest of the draft refers to it as a link type (i.e. 'rel' value).
** ACCEPTED SPEC UPDATE. FIXED: thanks for pointing that out. I believe the updated profile reflects that correctly now. --[[User:JonathanMalek|JonathanMalek]] 15:37, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
</div>
</div>

<div class="hentry">
{{OpenIssue}} <span class="entry-summary author vcard"><span class="published">2009-10-14</span> raised by <span class="fn">[[User:MarkNg|MarkNg]]</span></span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">adr for dateline</strong>. From [http://twitter.com/pigsonthewing/status/4831500605 Andy Mabbett on Twitter] : hNews microformat spec "dateline. optional. Using text or hCard" should read "dateline. optional. Using text, adr or hCard".
** Seems like a useful extra to me, any objections ? [[User:MarkNg|MarkNg]]
** Agreed, makes sense. --[[User:JonathanMalek|JonathanMalek]] 00:57, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
** +1 to addition of optional "adr" markup of "dateline", but should also allow "geo" markup of "dateline" as well. i.e. change: <blockquote><p>* a dateline element MAY be encoded in an hCard.</p></blockquote> to <blockquote><p>* a dateline element MAY be encoded with an [[adr]], [[geo]], or [[hCard]] on the same element.</p></blockquote> [[User:Tantek|Tantek]] 19:57, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
</div>
</div>

=== Closed Issues ===
<div class="hentry">
{{ClosedIssue}} <span class="entry-summary author vcard"><span class="published">2009-10-09</span> raised by <span class="fn">Miles De Feyter</span></span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">Implementation of item-license as it relates to hNews</strong>. Reading through the item-license brainstorm it seems to indicate that "item-license" would need to be nested within something with the class of "item". So as this relates to hNews is the suggestion to then have an articles containing div have the three class names of "hnews hentry item"?
** At this point, Miles, that is correct (following the [[licensing-brainstorming#item_as_container|licensing-brainstorming]] concept and guidance). I expect we'll see changes around item-license (it's still just brainstorming), but for the time being, the third class name "item" is needed. --[[User:JonathanMalek|JonathanMalek]] 16:25, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
** Added to [[hnews-faq]] --[[User:JonathanMalek|JonathanMalek]] 02:19, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
</div>
</div>
<div class="hentry">
{{ClosedIssue}} <span class="entry-summary author vcard"><span class="published">2009-09-28</span> raised by <span class="fn">[[User:MilesD|Miles De Feyter]]</span></span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">Principles as a requirement</strong>. Working for a publishing company that owns and operates a large number of different organizations I'd love to incorporate hNews within our publishing system. The hNews requirement for a principles statement could pose a problem though or at least make rolling out hNews a more involved process then it would be otherwise. The issue is, I would now have to go to each product owner and ask then to provide this principles statement to link to. So my concern is now rather then just making a change to the publishing system to support hNews there is this requirement for some supporting content. And due to the nature of the content I can only assume our legal dep. would need to sign off as well, further complicating the adoption of hNews.
** +1 I agree that the "principles" property (and probably all other others) should be optional. [[User:Tantek|Tantek]] 18:29, 29 September 2009 (UTC)
*** I think it's important to explain why principles is a requirement. hnews is essentially a specialization of hAtom. Its purpose is to distinguish news on the web. Hence the description of source organisation, license and principles. Of these, principles is the only one which consistently distinguishes news on the web from other content (eg. commercial, government). In the future it should be distinguished further by making the principles themselves machine readable (but that is for a later date). Most professional news organisations adhere to a Statement of Principles (e.g. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism_ethics_and_standards and http://www.journalism.org/resources/ethics_codes). If a site wants to mark up its content but does not want to distinguish it as news, then wouldn't it be easiest to use hAtom? [[User:martinjemoore|Martin Moore]] 9:00, 20 September 2009 (UTC)
*** Having discussed this issue at length outside this brainstorming, we understand some of the concerns of the microformat community regarding 'must', but are still convinced of the criticality of principles to hNews - therefore recommend downgrading from 'must' to 'should'. [[User:martinjemoore|Martin Moore]] 14:00, 7 October 2009 (UTC)
**** Accepted and implemented in 0.1. In keeping with the general direction here, we've changed <code>item-license</code> as well, and would consider adopting the same with <code>source-org</code> as well, if it proves to present the same problems. --[[User:JonathanMalek|JonathanMalek]] 00:53, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
</div>
</div>

<div class="hentry">
{{ClosedIssue}} <span class="entry-summary author vcard"><span class="published">18:32, 24 August 2009 (UTC)</span> raised by <span class="fn">[[User:Kevin Marks|Kevin Marks]]</span></span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">hCalendar instead of dateline?</strong> Would an [[hCalendar]] event (which can contain an hCard location) make sense for a dateline, or is the 'date' part more often omitted?
** Confusingly, the journalistic term "dateline" isn't anything to do with a date or time. It is the location from which a report is filed and is generally the main location associated with a story. Generally, a dateline consists of a city (e.g. "Rome") but could be the name of a ship at sea or even a space station. [[User:Stuart Myles|Stuart Myles]] 21:12, 24 August 2009 (UTC)
</div>
</div>

<div class="hentry">
{{ClosedIssue}} <span class="entry-summary author vcard"><span class="published">18:32, 24 August 2009 (UTC)</span> raised by <span class="fn">[[User:Kevin Marks|Kevin Marks]]</span></span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">hCard instead of geo?</strong> Is geo really in use here, or would using an hCard (that can contain geo) be a better way of representing locations referred to in the story, as more human readable?
** The reason for geo being highlighted (as an optional field) is to promote at least one location identifier in the story--preferably the most appropriate single location on a map for that particular story. Geo does not have to be related to dateline, but in some [http://labs.ap.org/wiki/hNews examples] we've worked on, we show the two collapsed into a single field. --[[User:JonathanMalek|JonathanMalek]] 23:53, 24 August 2009 (UTC)
** For locations referred to in the story, I agree--publishers should be using [[hCard]] with the contained geo to markup the locations themselves. One of the concepts I've struggled with is drawing an admittedly arbitrary line between the metadata ''about'' a story from the metadata ''within'' a story. For the former, we've focused on simplicity and minimalism, primarily as a means to encourage adoption. That has meant preferring [[rel-tag]] over in-line entity extraction and markup using compound microformats. For the latter, we feel that the field is open: use whatever microformat fits your purpose, however you can--the more, the better. This lets publishers with minimal technology capabilities at least get started by tweaking a few templates in their CMS, while those more technically inclined aren't limited by the simplicity of the format to a paucity of data. --[[User:JonathanMalek|JonathanMalek]] 23:53, 24 August 2009 (UTC)
** Also, dateline can be text or [[hCard]], as noted in the [[news-brainstorming#Common_News_Fields|Common News Fields]] section. --[[User:JonathanMalek|JonathanMalek]] 18:17, 24 September 2009 (UTC)
</div>
</div>

<div class="hentry">
{{ClosedIssue}} <span class="entry-summary author vcard"><span class="published">18:32, 24 August 2009 (UTC)</span> raised by <span class="fn">[[User:Kevin Marks|Kevin Marks]]</span></span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">What is item-license?</strong> Using [[rel-license]] presumably?
** We're working off the [[licensing-brainstorming#item_as_container|licensing-brainstorming]] discussions for this. Our concern with [[rel-license]] was its definition as applying to an entire page, rather than an item within a page. The current discussions around licensing definitely address that. --[[User:JonathanMalek|JonathanMalek]] 00:02, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
*** +1 using item-license for news-brainstorming makes sense. [[User:Tantek|Tantek]] 22:32, 27 August 2009 (UTC)
</div>
</div>

news-brainstorming

2009-10-09T18:53:01Z

MilesD: /* Open Issues */

= News Brainstorming =

There have been several efforts to define data formats for news content. Almost all have focused on the interchange of news content between systems and organizations, and so contain dozens (if not hundreds) of fields that are targeted at "news management"--a mix of content management, metadata management, versioning and other operations undertaken by news organizations.

This page serves to document the brainstorming and ideas resulting from analysis of news examples from real world sites and systems for the design of a simple news [[microformat]]. - [[User:JonathanMalek|Jonathan Malek]]

__TOC__

== Contributors ==

* Jonathan Malek
* Stuart Myles
* Martin Moore
* Mark Ng
* Todd Martin

== See Also ==

* [[news-examples]]
* [[news-formats]]

== The Problem ==

While there are dozens of formats used on thousands of news sites, there is no single standardized format for presentation of news on the web. Having a standardized news format for web publishing would significantly benefit readers, aggregators, search engines and researchers alike. With no standard format for news, search engines are forced to parse unstructured data, and errors can be costly (see ''[http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/09/six-year-old-st/ Wired.com], 2008'').

== Thoughts on a Microformat for News ==

We found significant overlap with [[hAtom]], and simplified an initial effort at a data format for news away from describing any fields already in [[hAtom]], or the superset [http://www.atomenabled.org/ Atom], with the expectation that future versions of that draft specification would approach feature parity. Instead, we focused on those news fields not in [[hAtom]].

In much the same way that one extends [http://www.atomenabled.org/ Atom], we are looking to extend [[hAtom]] with the most vital news-specific fields.

The fields we've selected are a combination of the common fields from many of the news formats currently in use, and the introduction of one new field, '''principles'''.

=== Common News Fields ===

* [[hAtom]] fields: first and foremost, a news story is an [[hatom#Entry|hentry]]. If the news story cannot be parsed by an [[hAtom]] parser, it is not a valid news format.
* '''source-org''': the source organization for this particular news story--should be considered different from the [http://www.atomenabled.org/developers/syndication/atom-format-spec.php#element.source atom:source element] because it does not represent the source feed, but rather the source organization (and so should use [[hCard]]). We're using ''source-org'' to avoid name conflict with [[hAtom]] should the draft decide to include the ''atom:source'' element.
* '''dateline''': using text or [[hCard]], not to be confused with date (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dateline dateline] for more information).
* '''geo''': using [[geo]], a simple way of providing the information necessary for services for readers around local news content. This field should be inherited from [[hAtom]], but since it is not part of the format yet, we're including it here. See the [[hatom-issues#Geo|hAtom and Geo]] discussion.
* '''item-license''': to express licensing around the item
* '''principles''': using the draft format [http://newscredit.org/development/newscredit-specification/rel-principles-specification/ rel-principles]

== Issues ==

Please add new issues to the bottom of the [[news-brainstorming#Open_Issues|Open Issues]] section by copy and pasting the [[news-brainstorming#Issues_Template|Template]]. Please follow-up to resolved/rejected issues with new information rather than resubmitting such issues. Duplicate issue additions will be reverted.

See also [[hatom-issues|hAtom Issues]]

=== Issues Template ===

{{issues-format}}

=== Open Issues ===
<div class="hentry">
{{OpenIssue}} <span class="entry-summary author vcard"><span class="published">2009-10-09</span> raised by <span class="fn">Miles De Feyter</span></span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">Implementation of item-license as it relates to hNews</strong>. Reading through the item-license brainstorm it seems to indicate that "item-license" would need to be nested within something with the class of "item". So as this relates to hNews is the suggestion to then have an articles containing div have the three class names of "hnews hentry item"?
</div>
</div>

=== Closed Issues ===

<div class="hentry">
{{ClosedIssue}} <span class="entry-summary author vcard"><span class="published">2009-09-28</span> raised by <span class="fn">[[User:MilesD|Miles De Feyter]]</span></span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">Principles as a requirement</strong>. Working for a publishing company that owns and operates a large number of different organizations I'd love to incorporate hNews within our publishing system. The hNews requirement for a principles statement could pose a problem though or at least make rolling out hNews a more involved process then it would be otherwise. The issue is, I would now have to go to each product owner and ask then to provide this principles statement to link to. So my concern is now rather then just making a change to the publishing system to support hNews there is this requirement for some supporting content. And due to the nature of the content I can only assume our legal dep. would need to sign off as well, further complicating the adoption of hNews.
** +1 I agree that the "principles" property (and probably all other others) should be optional. [[User:Tantek|Tantek]] 18:29, 29 September 2009 (UTC)
*** I think it's important to explain why principles is a requirement. hnews is essentially a specialization of hAtom. Its purpose is to distinguish news on the web. Hence the description of source organisation, license and principles. Of these, principles is the only one which consistently distinguishes news on the web from other content (eg. commercial, government). In the future it should be distinguished further by making the principles themselves machine readable (but that is for a later date). Most professional news organisations adhere to a Statement of Principles (e.g. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism_ethics_and_standards and http://www.journalism.org/resources/ethics_codes). If a site wants to mark up its content but does not want to distinguish it as news, then wouldn't it be easiest to use hAtom? [[User:martinjemoore|Martin Moore]] 9:00, 20 September 2009 (UTC)
*** Having discussed this issue at length outside this brainstorming, we understand some of the concerns of the microformat community regarding 'must', but are still convinced of the criticality of principles to hNews - therefore recommend downgrading from 'must' to 'should'. [[User:martinjemoore|Martin Moore]] 14:00, 7 October 2009 (UTC)
</div>
</div>

<div class="hentry">
{{ClosedIssue}} <span class="entry-summary author vcard"><span class="published">18:32, 24 August 2009 (UTC)</span> raised by <span class="fn">[[User:Kevin Marks|Kevin Marks]]</span></span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">hCalendar instead of dateline?</strong> Would an [[hCalendar]] event (which can contain an hCard location) make sense for a dateline, or is the 'date' part more often omitted?
** Confusingly, the journalistic term "dateline" isn't anything to do with a date or time. It is the location from which a report is filed and is generally the main location associated with a story. Generally, a dateline consists of a city (e.g. "Rome") but could be the name of a ship at sea or even a space station. [[User:Stuart Myles|Stuart Myles]] 21:12, 24 August 2009 (UTC)
</div>
</div>

<div class="hentry">
{{ClosedIssue}} <span class="entry-summary author vcard"><span class="published">18:32, 24 August 2009 (UTC)</span> raised by <span class="fn">[[User:Kevin Marks|Kevin Marks]]</span></span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">hCard instead of geo?</strong> Is geo really in use here, or would using an hCard (that can contain geo) be a better way of representing locations referred to in the story, as more human readable?
** The reason for geo being highlighted (as an optional field) is to promote at least one location identifier in the story--preferably the most appropriate single location on a map for that particular story. Geo does not have to be related to dateline, but in some [http://labs.ap.org/wiki/hNews examples] we've worked on, we show the two collapsed into a single field. --[[User:JonathanMalek|JonathanMalek]] 23:53, 24 August 2009 (UTC)
** For locations referred to in the story, I agree--publishers should be using [[hCard]] with the contained geo to markup the locations themselves. One of the concepts I've struggled with is drawing an admittedly arbitrary line between the metadata ''about'' a story from the metadata ''within'' a story. For the former, we've focused on simplicity and minimalism, primarily as a means to encourage adoption. That has meant preferring [[rel-tag]] over in-line entity extraction and markup using compound microformats. For the latter, we feel that the field is open: use whatever microformat fits your purpose, however you can--the more, the better. This lets publishers with minimal technology capabilities at least get started by tweaking a few templates in their CMS, while those more technically inclined aren't limited by the simplicity of the format to a paucity of data. --[[User:JonathanMalek|JonathanMalek]] 23:53, 24 August 2009 (UTC)
** Also, dateline can be text or [[hCard]], as noted in the [[news-brainstorming#Common_News_Fields|Common News Fields]] section. --[[User:JonathanMalek|JonathanMalek]] 18:17, 24 September 2009 (UTC)
</div>
</div>

<div class="hentry">
{{ClosedIssue}} <span class="entry-summary author vcard"><span class="published">18:32, 24 August 2009 (UTC)</span> raised by <span class="fn">[[User:Kevin Marks|Kevin Marks]]</span></span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">What is item-license?</strong> Using [[rel-license]] presumably?
** We're working off the [[licensing-brainstorming#item_as_container|licensing-brainstorming]] discussions for this. Our concern with [[rel-license]] was its definition as applying to an entire page, rather than an item within a page. The current discussions around licensing definitely address that. --[[User:JonathanMalek|JonathanMalek]] 00:02, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
*** +1 using item-license for news-brainstorming makes sense. [[User:Tantek|Tantek]] 22:32, 27 August 2009 (UTC)
</div>
</div>

== Naming ==

Here are candidate names for a news microformat:

* hNews

= Proposal =
hNews is a data format (similar to a microformat) for news content. hNews extends [http://microformats.org/wiki/hatom hAtom], introducing a number of fields that more completely describe a journalistic work. hNews also introduces another data format, [http://newscredit.org/development/newscredit-specification/rel-principles-specification/ rel-principles], a format that describes the journalistic principles upheld by the journalist or news organization that has published the news item. hNews will be one of several open standards.

== Introduction ==
hNews is a format (similar to a [[microformat]]) for identifying semantic information in news stories. It builds on [[hAtom]], while adding a number of fields that more completely define a journalistic work. hNews can be thought of as inheriting from [[hAtom]], since parsers and tools that do not understand the hNews extensions can still parse the [[hAtom]] content. However, those parsers and applications that understand hNews can enable a richer set of semantic actions on news stories.

{{rfc-2119-intro}}

== Format ==
=== In General ===
hNews extends hAtom. As the hAtom draft format notes, "Atom provides a lot more functionality than we need for a 'blog post' microformat, so we've taken the minimal number of elements needed." News stories typically introduce more fields (for instance, the publishing organization) than the current 0.1 draft of hAtom, and those fields are very important when reading or evaluating a news story. We focus on those fields that enable the development of semantic actions around news: license, principles, dateline (geo) and source organization.

=== Schema ===
The hNews schema consists of the following:

* (root) ('''<code>root</code>''') and '''<code>hentry</code>'''. required. Using [[hAtom]].
** '''<code>source-org</code>'''. required. Using [[hCard]].[*]
** '''<code>dateline</code>'''. optional. Using text or [[hCard]].
** '''<code>geo</code>'''. optional. Using [[geo]].[*]
** '''<code>item-license</code>'''. required. Using a [http://microformats.org/wiki/licensing-brainstorming#item_as_container license brainstorm proposal].
** '''<code>principles</code>'''. recommended. Using the draft microformat. [http://newscredit.org/development/newscredit-specification/rel-principles-specification/ rel-principles].

[*] Some required elements have defaults if missing, see below.

=== Field and Element Details ===

===== Source Organization =====
* a Source Organization element is identified by the class name <code>source-org</code>.
* Source Organization represents the originating organization for the news story.
* a Source Organization {{must}} be encoded in an [[hCard]].
* if the Source Organization is missing
** find the [[algorithm-nearest-in-parent]] element(s) with class name <code>source-org</code> and that is/are a valid [[hCard]]
** otherwise the entry is invalid hNews

===== Dateline =====
* a dateline element is identified by the class name <code>dateline</code>.
* dateline represents the location where the news story was written or filed (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dateline dateline] for more details).
* a dateline element {{may}} be encoded in an [[hCard]].
* a news story {{should}} have a dateline element.
* dateline sometimes also includes the publish date of the news story. In such cases, use the [[datetime-design-pattern]] to encode the date.

===== Geo =====
* a geo element is identified by the class name <code>geo</code>
* geo represents the geographic coordinates of relevant locations in the news story.
* a geo element should be encoded in a [[geo]].
* in those cases where the latitude and longitude represent the dateline, a variant of [[geo]] should be used (see [http://microformats.org/wiki/geo-brainstorming#Geo_improvements Geo Improvements] for an example).

===== License =====
* a license element is identified by the class name <code>item-license</code>.
* a license element {{must}} be encoded as described in this [http://microformats.org/wiki/licensing-brainstorming#item_as_container license brainstorm proposal].

===== Principles =====
* a principles element is identified by <code>rel-principles</code>.
* principles represents the statement of principles and ethics used by the news organization that produced the news story.
* a principles element {{must}} be encoded in [http://newscredit.org/development/newscredit-specification/rel-principles-specification/ rel-principles].
* a news story {{should}} include principles.
* principles {{should}} be linked to using the icons [[image:principles-button-blue.png]] or [[image:principles-book-blue.png]].

=== XMDP Profile ===
<pre>
<dl class="profile">
<dt>class</dt>
<dd><p>

<a rel="help" href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/global.html#adef-class">
HTML4 definition of the 'class' attribute.</a>
This meta data profile defines some 'class' attribute values (class names)
and their meanings as suggested by a
<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-htmllink-970328#profile">
draft of "Hypertext Links in HTML"</a>.
<dl>

<dt>root</dt>
<dd>
Used to describe semantic information associated with news stories.
</dd>

<dt>source-org</dt>
<dd>
The originating organization for the news story.
</dd>

<dt>dateline</dt>
<dd>
Represents the location where the news story was filed.
</dd>

<dt>geo</dt>
<dd>
Represents geographic coordinates of relevant locations in the story.
</dd>

<dt>item-license</dt>
<dd>
Represents the license for the story.
</dd>

<dt>principles</dt>
<dd>
Represents the statement of principles and ethics used by the news organization that produced the news story.
</dd>

</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
</pre>

news-brainstorming

2009-09-28T05:05:31Z

MilesD: /* Open Issues */

= News Brainstorming =

There have been several efforts to define data formats for news content. Almost all have focused on the interchange of news content between systems and organizations, and so contain dozens (if not hundreds) of fields that are targeted at "news management"--a mix of content management, metadata management, versioning and other operations undertaken by news organizations.

This page serves to document the brainstorming and ideas resulting from analysis of news examples from real world sites and systems for the design of a simple news [[microformat]]. - [[User:JonathanMalek|Jonathan Malek]]

__TOC__

== Contributors ==

* Jonathan Malek
* Stuart Myles
* Martin Moore
* Mark Ng
* Todd Martin

== See Also ==

* [[news-examples]]
* [[news-formats]]

== The Problem ==

While there are dozens of formats used on thousands of news sites, there is no single standardized format for presentation of news on the web. Having a standardized news format for web publishing would significantly benefit readers, aggregators, search engines and researchers alike. With no standard format for news, search engines are forced to parse unstructured data, and errors can be costly (see ''[http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/09/six-year-old-st/ Wired.com], 2008'').

== Thoughts on a Microformat for News ==

We found significant overlap with [[hAtom]], and simplified an initial effort at a data format for news away from describing any fields already in [[hAtom]], or the superset [http://www.atomenabled.org/ Atom], with the expectation that future versions of that draft specification would approach feature parity. Instead, we focused on those news fields not in [[hAtom]].

In much the same way that one extends [http://www.atomenabled.org/ Atom], we are looking to extend [[hAtom]] with the most vital news-specific fields.

The fields we've selected are a combination of the common fields from many of the news formats currently in use, and the introduction of one new field, '''principles'''.

=== Common News Fields ===

* [[hAtom]] fields: first and foremost, a news story is an [[hatom#Entry|hentry]]. If the news story cannot be parsed by an [[hAtom]] parser, it is not a valid news format.
* '''source-org''': the source organization for this particular news story--should be considered different from the [http://www.atomenabled.org/developers/syndication/atom-format-spec.php#element.source atom:source element] because it does not represent the source feed, but rather the source organization (and so should use [[hCard]]). We're using ''source-org'' to avoid name conflict with [[hAtom]] should the draft decide to include the ''atom:source'' element.
* '''dateline''': using text or [[hCard]], not to be confused with date (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dateline dateline] for more information).
* '''geo''': using [[geo]], a simple way of providing the information necessary for services for readers around local news content. This field should be inherited from [[hAtom]], but since it is not part of the format yet, we're including it here. See the [[hatom-issues#Geo|hAtom and Geo]] discussion.
* '''item-license''': to express licensing around the item
* '''principles''': using the draft format [http://newscredit.org/development/newscredit-specification/rel-principles-specification/ rel-principles]

== Issues ==

Please add new issues to the bottom of the [[news-brainstorming#Open_Issues|Open Issues]] section by copy and pasting the [[news-brainstorming#Issues_Template|Template]]. Please follow-up to resolved/rejected issues with new information rather than resubmitting such issues. Duplicate issue additions will be reverted.

=== Issues Template ===

{{issues-format}}

=== Open Issues ===

<div class="hentry">
{{OpenIssue}} <span class="entry-summary author vcard"><span class="published">2009-09-28</span> raised by <span class="fn">[[User:MilesD|Miles De Feyter]]</span></span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">Principles as a requirement</strong>. Working for a publishing company that owns and operates a large number of different organizations I'd love to incorporate hNews within our publishing system. The hNews requirement for a principles statement could pose a problem though or at least make rolling out hNews a more involved process then it would be otherwise. The issue is, I would now have to go to each product owner and ask then to provide this principles statement to link to. So my concern is now rather then just making a change to the publishing system to support hNews there is this requirement for some supporting content. And due to the nature of the content I can only assume our legal dep. would need to sign off as well, further complicating the adoption of hNews.
</div>
</div>

<div class="hentry">
{{ClosedIssue}} <span class="entry-summary author vcard"><span class="published">18:32, 24 August 2009 (UTC)</span> raised by <span class="fn">[[User:Kevin Marks|Kevin Marks]]</span></span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">hCalendar instead of dateline?</strong> Would an [[hCalendar]] event (which can contain an hCard location) make sense for a dateline, or is the 'date' part more often omitted?
** Confusingly, the journalistic term "dateline" isn't anything to do with a date or time. It is the location from which a report is filed and is generally the main location associated with a story. Generally, a dateline consists of a city (e.g. "Rome") but could be the name of a ship at sea or even a space station. [[User:Stuart Myles|Stuart Myles]] 21:12, 24 August 2009 (UTC)
</div>
</div>

<div class="hentry">
{{ClosedIssue}} <span class="entry-summary author vcard"><span class="published">18:32, 24 August 2009 (UTC)</span> raised by <span class="fn">[[User:Kevin Marks|Kevin Marks]]</span></span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">hCard instead of geo?</strong> Is geo really in use here, or would using an hCard (that can contain geo) be a better way of representing locations referred to in the story, as more human readable?
** The reason for geo being highlighted (as an optional field) is to promote at least one location identifier in the story--preferably the most appropriate single location on a map for that particular story. Geo does not have to be related to dateline, but in some [http://labs.ap.org/wiki/hNews examples] we've worked on, we show the two collapsed into a single field. --[[User:JonathanMalek|JonathanMalek]] 23:53, 24 August 2009 (UTC)
** For locations referred to in the story, I agree--publishers should be using [[hCard]] with the contained geo to markup the locations themselves. One of the concepts I've struggled with is drawing an admittedly arbitrary line between the metadata ''about'' a story from the metadata ''within'' a story. For the former, we've focused on simplicity and minimalism, primarily as a means to encourage adoption. That has meant preferring [[rel-tag]] over in-line entity extraction and markup using compound microformats. For the latter, we feel that the field is open: use whatever microformat fits your purpose, however you can--the more, the better. This lets publishers with minimal technology capabilities at least get started by tweaking a few templates in their CMS, while those more technically inclined aren't limited by the simplicity of the format to a paucity of data. --[[User:JonathanMalek|JonathanMalek]] 23:53, 24 August 2009 (UTC)
** Also, dateline can be text or [[hCard]], as noted in the [[news-brainstorming#Common_News_Fields|Common News Fields]] section. --[[User:JonathanMalek|JonathanMalek]] 18:17, 24 September 2009 (UTC)
</div>
</div>

<div class="hentry">
{{ClosedIssue}} <span class="entry-summary author vcard"><span class="published">18:32, 24 August 2009 (UTC)</span> raised by <span class="fn">[[User:Kevin Marks|Kevin Marks]]</span></span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">What is item-license?</strong> Using [[rel-license]] presumably?
** We're working off the [[licensing-brainstorming#item_as_container|licensing-brainstorming]] discussions for this. Our concern with [[rel-license]] was its definition as applying to an entire page, rather than an item within a page. The current discussions around licensing definitely address that. --[[User:JonathanMalek|JonathanMalek]] 00:02, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
*** +1 using item-license for news-brainstorming makes sense. [[User:Tantek|Tantek]] 22:32, 27 August 2009 (UTC)
</div>
</div>

=== Closed Issues ===

== Naming ==

Here are candidate names for a news microformat:

* hNews

= Proposal =
hNews is a data format (similar to a microformat) for news content. hNews extends [http://microformats.org/wiki/hatom hAtom], introducing a number of fields that more completely describe a journalistic work. hNews also introduces another data format, [http://newscredit.org/development/newscredit-specification/rel-principles-specification/ rel-principles], a format that describes the journalistic principles upheld by the journalist or news organization that has published the news item. hNews will be one of several open standards.

== Introduction ==
hNews is a format (similar to a [[microformat]]) for identifying semantic information in news stories. It builds on [[hAtom]], while adding a number of fields that more completely define a journalistic work. hNews can be thought of as inheriting from [[hAtom]], since parsers and tools that do not understand the hNews extensions can still parse the [[hAtom]] content. However, those parsers and applications that understand hNews can enable a richer set of semantic actions on news stories.

{{rfc-2119-intro}}

== Format ==
=== In General ===
hNews extends hAtom. As the hAtom draft format notes, "Atom provides a lot more functionality than we need for a 'blog post' microformat, so we've taken the minimal number of elements needed." News stories typically introduce more fields (for instance, the publishing organization) than the current 0.1 draft of hAtom, and those fields are very important when reading or evaluating a news story. We focus on those fields that enable the development of semantic actions around news: license, principles, dateline (geo) and source organization.

=== Schema ===
The hNews schema consists of the following:

* (root) ('''<code>root</code>''') and '''<code>hentry</code>'''. required. Using [[hAtom]].
** '''<code>source-org</code>'''. required. Using [[hCard]].[*]
** '''<code>dateline</code>'''. optional. Using text or [[hCard]].
** '''<code>geo</code>'''. optional. Using [[geo]].[*]
** '''<code>item-license</code>'''. required. Using a [http://microformats.org/wiki/licensing-brainstorming#item_as_container license brainstorm proposal].
** '''<code>principles</code>'''. required. Using the draft microformat. [http://newscredit.org/development/newscredit-specification/rel-principles-specification/ rel-principles].

[*] Some required elements have defaults if missing, see below.

=== Field and Element Details ===

===== Source Organization =====
* a Source Organization element is identified by the class name <code>source-org</code>.
* Source Organization represents the originating organization for the news story.
* a Source Organization {{must}} be encoded in an [[hCard]].
* if the Source Organization is missing
** find the [[algorithm-nearest-in-parent]] element(s) with class name <code>source-org</code> and that is/are a valid [[hCard]]
** otherwise the entry is invalid hNews

===== Dateline =====
* a dateline element is identified by the class name <code>dateline</code>.
* dateline represents the location where the news story was written or filed (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dateline dateline] for more details).
* a dateline element {{may}} be encoded in an [[hCard]].
* a news story {{should}} have a dateline element.
* dateline sometimes also includes the publish date of the news story. In such cases, use the [[datetime-design-pattern]] to encode the date.

===== Geo =====
* a geo element is identified by the class name <code>geo</code>
* geo represents the geographic coordinates of relevant locations in the news story.
* a geo element should be encoded in a [[geo]].
* in those cases where the latitude and longitude represent the dateline, a variant of [[geo]] should be used (see [http://microformats.org/wiki/geo-brainstorming#Geo_improvements Geo Improvements] for an example).

===== License =====
* a license element is identified by the class name <code>item-license</code>.
* a license element {{must}} be encoded as described in this [http://microformats.org/wiki/licensing-brainstorming#item_as_container license brainstorm proposal].

===== Principles =====
* a principles element is identified by <code>rel-principles</code>.
* principles represents the statement of principles and ethics used by the news organization that produced the news story.
* a principles element {{must}} be encoded in [http://newscredit.org/development/newscredit-specification/rel-principles-specification/ rel-principles].
* principles {{should}} be linked to using the icons [[image:principles-button-blue.png]] or [[image:principles-book-blue.png]].

=== XMDP Profile ===
<pre>
<dl class="profile">
<dt>class</dt>
<dd><p>

<a rel="help" href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/global.html#adef-class">
HTML4 definition of the 'class' attribute.</a>
This meta data profile defines some 'class' attribute values (class names)
and their meanings as suggested by a
<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-htmllink-970328#profile">
draft of "Hypertext Links in HTML"</a>.
<dl>

<dt>root</dt>
<dd>
Used to describe semantic information associated with news stories.
</dd>

<dt>source-org</dt>
<dd>
The originating organization for the news story.
</dd>

<dt>dateline</dt>
<dd>
Represents the location where the news story was filed.
</dd>

<dt>geo</dt>
<dd>
Represents geographic coordinates of relevant locations in the story.
</dd>

<dt>item-license</dt>
<dd>
Represents the license for the story.
</dd>

<dt>principles</dt>
<dd>
Represents the statement of principles and ethics used by the news organization that produced the news story.
</dd>

</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
</pre>