Microformats Wiki - User contributions [en]

currency-issues

2007-01-04T19:03:34Z

Emil: /* Comments */

= Currency - Issues =

== Unit and Value ==

=== Example ===

<pre>

99
<abbr class="unit">¢</abbr>
<abbr class="currency" title="USD"></abbr>

</pre>

<pre>

1.232
<abbr class="unit">bill.</abbr>
<abbr class="currency" title="EUR">Euro</abbr>

</pre>

=== Problem ===

The base for this data (amount) is the currency - USD (U.S. Dollar). But the amount is not 99 Dollar, its 0.99 Dollar. The unit is ¢ (U.S. Cent). While the currency value is defined by ISO 4217, there is no list for a currency and its corresponding factors to the currency base. Therefore it would be problematic to automatic transfere those values.

Similar Problem [http://www.stock-world.de/news/article.m?news_id=2195425 is the use] of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion billion] like 1.232 Bill. Euro. But the amount is not 1,232,000,000 Euro like an native English reader might think, in German it means 1,232,000,000,000 Euro.

=== Alternative 1 ===

Providing the amount corresponding to the currency:

<pre>

<abbr class="amount" title="0.99">99</abbr>
<abbr class="unit">¢</abbr>
<abbr class="currency" title="USD"></abbr>

</pre>

<pre>

<abbr class="amount" title="1232000000000">1.232</abbr>
<abbr class="unit">bill.</abbr>
<abbr class="currency" title="EUR">Euro</abbr>

</pre>

=== Alternative 2 ===

Providing the unit-factor corresponding to the currency base:

<pre>

99
<abbr class="unit" title="0.01">¢</abbr>
<abbr class="currency" title="USD"></abbr>

</pre>

<pre>

1.232
<abbr class="unit" title="1000000000000">bill.</abbr>
<abbr class="currency" title="EUR">Euro</abbr>

</pre>

=== Alternative 3 ===

Providing the unit-factor corresponding to the currency base in an own element "scale" (I will suggest this also to the measurement format discussion.) Therefore the unit can be used for the currency itself - then it is more in line with a general measurement format.

<pre>

99
<abbr class="scale" title="0.01">¢</abbr>
<abbr class="unit" title="USD"></abbr>

</pre>

<pre>

1.232
<abbr class="scale" titel="1000000000000">bill.</abbr>
<abbr class="unit" title="EUR">Euro</abbr>

</pre>

or with built-in scale:

<pre>

99
<abbr class="scale" title="C">¢</abbr>
<abbr class="unit" title="USD"></abbr>

</pre>

<pre>

1.232
<abbr class="scale" titel="TR">bill.</abbr>
<abbr class="unit" title="EUR">Euro</abbr>

</pre>

===Comments===
*Alternative 1 is the nearest to being correct, according to the model I have proposed. [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]] 07:24, 2 Jan 2007 (PST)
** I know, that Alternative 1 is the nearest to your model - but having the measurment format in mind, I think that Alternative 3 would be the more logical approache. I [http://microformats.org/wiki/measure-brainstorming#Approache suggested there] to have '''value''' (in replace for the amount), '''scale''' (like you defined the unit) '''unit''' (different use: name of the unit - like your currency and for money as a measurement format the unit is limited to the list of ISO 4217). So you would have a compatible measurement format and money as its sub-format --Emil 11:03, 4 Jan 2007 (PST)

==Related pages==
{{currency-related-pages}}

currency-issues

2007-01-04T17:59:21Z

Emil: Alternative 3 with built-in scale

measure-brainstorming

2007-01-01T21:08:52Z

Emil: Added an Approache for the a general format and sub-formats

= Measure Microformat Brainstorming =

This page collects ideas on how to use semantic XHTML to represent unambiguously [[measure]]s.

== Guillaume Lebleu ==

Basic example with elementary unit using the abbr pattern and the UNECE code (see [[measure-formats]])

<pre>
5 <abbr class="unit" title="FOT">Feet</abbr>
</pre>

Optional "value" could be useful in some cases, for instance when the value is provided in plain text:

<pre>
<abbr class="value" title="5">Five</abbr> <abbr class="unit" title="FOT">Feet</abbr>
</pre>

==Andy Mabbett==
This Firefox extension may be of interest. Note, though, that it's been criticised for having a "nag" screen: [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2286/ Converter] [[User:AndyMabbett|AndyMabbett]] 15:32, 3 Oct 2006 (PDT)

:This is the author of that extension. I don't want to go much into this, but I just want to clarify this briefly. The part with the nag screen is wrong on two counts: (1) that dialog isn't there anymore, and (2) even if it was there, you only needed to read a paragraph and click a button to make it go away ''forever'' -- but you don't have to take my word for it, install it for yourselves and see. Andy's report is accurate however -- the extension '''''was''''' criticized for that dialog (that's what you get from your free extension's users when you ask for 15 seconds of their time in return for hundreds of hours of your time). --[[User:BogdanStancescu|BogdanStancescu]] 09:35, 9 Oct 2006 (PDT)

==Bogdan Stăncescu==
Here are my findings related to automatic parsing of measurements on web pages while developing the [http://converter.mozdev.org Converter] extension. Please ask away if you want me to go into more detail on any of the topics -- I'm not sure which of my experiences are relevant to microformats, so I'm going to give you an overview of my conclusions.

By the way of an introduction, the Converter is a Firefox extension which tries to convert all measurements it finds in any web page to their Imperial or metric counterpart (e.g. Fahrenheit to Celsius, and Celsius to Fahrenheit; meters to feet and feet to meters). There are two steps to the conversion process: (1) identifying the measurements in the page, and (2) converting them. As expected, the conversion part is trivial, at least conceptually. The parsing is the tricky bit, and that's also where the Converter's challenges also become relevant for microformats.

Here are the main challenges I have encountered while writing the Converter:

;Presentation standardization: The first, biggest and most obvious challenge is lack of almost any ''de facto'' standardization in respect to data presentation. What I mean is that although the units themselves are more or less standardized (more on that later), they are ''presented'' in various ways within web pages. Take these examples: "50 foot monster", "50 ft monster", "50 feet monster", "50-foot monster", "50-feet monster" -- and my personal favorite, "fifty-foot monster" (more on this later);

:Note that using a microformat using in particular the [[abbr-design-pattern]] would make each of these examples less ambiguous if not unambiguous. See below --[[User:Guillaume_Lebleu|Guillaume_Lebleu]]:

<pre>
50<abbr class="unit" title="FOT">foot</abbr> monster
</pre>

<pre>
50<abbr class="unit" title="FOT">ft</abbr> monster
</pre>

<pre>
50-<abbr class="unit" title="FOT">foot</abbr> monster
</pre>

<pre>
50<abbr class="unit" title="FOT">feet</abbr> monster
</pre>

<pre>
<abbr class="value" title="50">fifty</abbr><abbr class="unit" title="FOT">foot</abbr> monster
</pre>

:: Of course; as far as I could gather, that's actually the ''purpose'' of microformats -- bridging the gap between what humans and machines can understand, no? --[[User:BogdanStancescu|BogdanStancescu]] 00:30, 11 Oct 2006 (PDT)

;Unit standardization: I live in Europe, where I've always used the metric system. As such, this probably was a much bigger nasty surprise for me than it is for a user of the Imperial/U.S. Customary system: in the Imperial system, the units themselves vary depending on where you are -- miles, pints, and a whole lot of other units come in many different flavors, but they're all written the same in regular usage;

;Language: "1 meter" vs. "1 metre" is a reasonable difference -- but non-SI units are usually translated. Even some SI units have different plurals, depending on the language, although in theory SI units are actually denoted by ''symbols'', not "words", as to make them non-translatable, and truly international (hence the name of the SI). I haven't really given much thought to a solution towards parsing these, because I find it overwhelming for the time.

;The sheer number of units: surprisingly, most people don't realize just how many units we humans have invented. Just take a look here: [http://www.asknumbers.com/ asknumbers.com] -- see how many categories there are? Now click on Flow Rate -- a non-ubiquitous type of measurement. Three sub-categories only for flow rates! Now click on Volume Flow Rate and take a look at the number of units in those lists. Remember, those are just in one of the three categories for flow rate! The UNECE standard mentioned in the [[measure-formats#Measure_Formats|measure formats]] page is useful to define just that -- a ''standard'' set of units. But in practice there are a lot more being used out there.

:Do you have examples from the Web (a URL) of non-UNECE units. One possibility would be to provide the ability for a unit to be defined as a division of products of other units. This is consistent with the [[measure-formats#Systeme_International]], which defines 7 base units and all other units as derived units (of course some units, even though they are derived are much easily represented as simple ones). This is what XBRL has done for financial/accounting/reporting. See [[currency-formats#XBRL]] and theorical example (ampere acre per second) below --[[User:Guillaume_Lebleu|Guillaume_Lebleu]]:

::Unfortunately I don't have URLs -- almost at all -- with measurements, although I've been in the "business" for a while. The reason for this is that I collect URLs of pages I encounter which are not properly parsed by the Converter, and when I release a version which understands those, I delete the URLs. Also, I never intended to cover all units in the Converter myself, for a multitude of reasons -- therefore I was never interested in the more exotic ones.

Guillaume Lebleu's example
<pre>

<abbr class="unit" title="AMP">Ampere</abbr> <abbr class="unit" title="ACR">acre</abbr> per <abbr class="unit" title="SEC">second</abbr>

</pre>

::Regarding your idea of breaking down the units in base units, that's something I've also been toying with in my head for the Converter. For my particular application, it's technically more difficult to implement this breakdown. For microformats, it would be easier, but there still remains at least one potential problem: you end up with a huge mess in the page. If a standard is too complicated to follow, one tends to give up altogether.

::Consider a document which actually discusses some sort of current variation per farm, and therefore needs to repeatedly refer to ampere acres per second. For human use, they'd simply define the AAS somewhere at the top of the document, and then refer to AAS, KAAS or MAAS as needed. Maybe a similar approach should be considered for microformats as well:

<pre>
We define the

<abbr class="unit_name">AAS
as
<abbr class="unit" title="AMP">Ampere</abbr>
<abbr class="unit" title="ACR">acre</abbr>
per
<abbr class="unit" title="SEC">second</abbr>
.
</pre>

::And then use the "AAS" throughout the document as any other pre-defined unit. How would you define (and use) the KAAS (1000 AAS) or MAAS (1,000,000 AAS) though? Is there any standard way already to use data multipliers in microformats? Or should we discuss that? Or is it out of scope? --[[User:BogdanStancescu|BogdanStancescu]] 00:30, 11 Oct 2006 (PDT)

That's all I can think of as major hurdles right now. If I remember anything else, I'll post here. Please do give me feedback here if you want to ask more about any of the topics I touched above, or if you have other questions I might be able to reply to. --[[User:BogdanStancescu|BogdanStancescu]] 12:08, 9 Oct 2006 (PDT)

==Discoleo==
=== Measurement Classification ===

Because it is easier to provide examples, I will first list examples.

==== Categorical vs Ordinal Data ====

Various measurements may produce '''NON-Numerical''' values:
* a pain scale: '''most severe''', '''very severe''', '''severe''', ...
* or the TNM tumour classification system: T0, Tx, T1, T2, T3, T4, N0, ...

There is even a more fundamental issue related to numbers themselves, e.g.:
* '''Lists''' or '''Years''' are sometimes written using '''Roman Numbers'''
** however, the strings corresponding to ''Roman Numbers'', when sorted alphabetically, do NOT retain the correct order
** i.e. C (100) preceds L (50), which preceds X (10)
* there are other numbering schemes

==== A Single Value / Data Point ====

This is the most simple data format and pretty straitforward to implement.

* the distance between 2 cities is '''40 km'''
* the velocity is '''62 mph'''
* most other simple entires (...)

==== An Interval Measurement ====

* time: the shop is open between '''6am - 18pm''' on every day of the week, exept Saturdays from '''9am - 16pm''' and Sundays from '''9am - 13pm'''
**[[hcalendar|hCalendar]]? [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]] 09:24, 22 Nov 2006 (PST)

This is more about an interval measurement. Every variable can have 2 (or more) values, e.g.:
* the levels of rain fall were between 25mm - 35mm
* the maximum velocity of various cars was 220 - 250 km/h

Should these values be stored as separate values? [e.g. low / high]
Or should the microformats be able to store an interval?

See also the examples for statistical summaries below.

*Mark up each as a separate measurement, and wrap them in a "range" microforamt? [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]] 11:36, 22 Nov 2006 (PST)

==== Matrices ====

* the GPS coordinates are '''12°14' N and 25°55' E'''
**[[geo|Geo]]? [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]] 09:25, 22 Nov 2006 (PST)
* the dimension of the box is '''3m x 2m x 0.55m'''
**this is three separate, single measurements, surely? [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]] 09:21, 22 Nov 2006 (PST)
** 3 x 2 x 0.55 cubic meter, still 3 measurements, BUT given as cubic meter => ONE measurement?
***Who writes 3x2x0.55 cubic meter? You'd write "3.3m3" [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]] 11:36, 22 Nov 2006 (PST)
** the surface was 2 x 3 square feet ???
***Who writes 2x3 sq ft? You'd write "2ftx3ft" or "6ft2" [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]] 11:36, 22 Nov 2006 (PST)

* IF we write "3.3m3" or "6ft2", we '''loose information'''
* IF I want a surface, I would prefer the '''sqare feet''' unit, and NOT '''...feet x ...feet'''
* writing for every measure a markup, will '''bloat''' the code extensively
** data matrices would be very effective here
*** how would you make such a matrix? There are different ways how such information can be "compounded". (length per time = speed, length * length = area). Maybe a we can group those measurements by a surrounding information, what the context is. --Emil 02:50, 25 Dec 2006 (PST)

==== Statistical Measurements ====

Often, a group of data is summarized using a statistics:
* the mean length was 1.3m (SD 0.12m, group size 22)
* the median age was 42 years (interquartile range 95% 18 - 97)

==== Measurement Scales ====

===== Accuracy vs. Precision =====

'''QUESTIONS'''
* How detailed should a measurement be stored?
**Microformats aren't for storing measurements; they're for "labelling" the measurements that are already present. [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]] 09:23, 22 Nov 2006 (PST)
* If Accuracy and precision are relevant to the measurement, how do we store these?

===== Standardization of Measurement =====

* sometimes we may need to store the calibration information / calibration curves
* we may need to store the reference point the measurement is based on
* we may need to store the '''normal values'''
** biomedical measurements are often laboratory dependent, so it does NOT make sense to have the measurement without the corresponding normal values
** e.g. anti-Hepatitis B surface antigen antibody (anti-HBs) Titer: 32 MIU/ml
*** normal: 0 (non-infected, non-past infection, non-immunity)
*** protective immunity: >10 MIU/ml
*** interpretation is however more complex, depending on other tests as well

== Emil Thies ==

From my understanding, this microformat should concentrate on the notation of a measurement. So there will be some aspects, which has to be covered (elsewhere?) to improve the automatic use it or this microformat only uses some base informationens (units / dimensions) and derives all used from those base / build-in once.

=== Dimension vs. Unit vs. Scale vs. Measurement ===

A measurement is the combination of a number (value) and a unit (kind).
* 3km (3 Kilo Metre = 3.000 Metre)

A unit is a view for a measure of a dimension. There are two kinds how units can be different to each user:
* Units Differ by Scale (Prefix)
** 3km is the same as 3.000 meter or 300.000 cm (Its the same unit, with a different prefix, which works like a factor for the value, to lower the amount of symbols / numbers. The scale should be an own element and we can make use of the standard prefixes, like they are defined on [http://aurora.regenstrief.org/UCUM/ucum.html#section-Prefixes The Unified Code for Units of Measure] or [http://www.w3.org/TR/mathml-units/#SI-prefixes MathML]).
* Different units of the same dimension can be transfered into each other.
** Metre is a unit of the dimension length.
** Foot is a unit of the dimension length.

A Dimension is a base-dimension (see SI-System) or a compound dimension.
* length is a base dimension
* time is a base dimension
* speed is a comound dimension (length per time). There for a measurement of speed has one number and two unit by a mathexpresseion, which form their own unit. e.g. 10 m/s (10 Metre per second).

If we express a measurement in a microformat by the unit, the dimension is indirect provided by it. But a microformat, which uses measurement as a part, needs to define the dimension of it, to keep the use of the unit as an user choice. So, we could have a generall measurement element, which allows all kiinds of units to use. As a derrived format, we can have sub-formats, which limit the list of units (or define an alternate list) by only allowing specific dimension(s).

E.G.
* [[currency-proposal]], with the money element which usese the same elements value (should then replace amount), scale (should be introduced), unit (should replace currency) which is limit to the ISO 4217 list.
* length, which only allows units which measures the dimension length, like FOT, MTR ...

=== Identification of Units ===

There are so many Units around - not only the existing one. There are deprecated ones like from Rome empire etc. For example "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_(unit_of_length) Foot]" is not an unique identification of a unit. There is not only the British and U.S., there are for example same old German ones, before those areas joined the international metre convention in 1875:
* 25 cm in Hessen
* 28,935 cm in Bremen
* 29,641 cm in Oldenburg
* 29,1859 cm in Bayern
* 30,385 cm in Meiningen-Hildburghausen
* 31,385 cm in Preußen
* 31,608 cm in Wien/Österreich
* 32,61 cm in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe
* 33 1/3 cm in der Pfalz

So there is the need of a unique identification of those units. I found two approach right:

==== In MathML ====

MathML [http://www.w3.org/TR/mathml-units/#definitionURL defines] the construction of an URI like:

<nowiki>http://base/units/unit name[/context][/country][#prefix]</nowiki>

<pre>
http://.../units/foot/de
</pre>

But as you can see, there is right now no way to distinguish the different German foots based on the area inside Germany. Furthermore the context is so variable, that the same unit can be described by different URLs.

==== In OpenMath ====

OpenMath [http://www.openmath.org/cdgroups/units.html defines] the units inside of content directories:

<pre>
http://www.openmath.org/cd/units_us1.xhtml#foot_us_survey
</pre>

So there is a unique URLs for a Unit, but not every Unit is covered.

=== Transformation of Units ===

A real benefit is the automatic transformation of a unit, so that the write can write the measurement in his context (e.g. in the U.S. foot, or a quote from an antike text in Rome Empire foot) and the reader can get a transformation in his context (e.g. the value in metre). There fore there is the need of additional transformation information. And there are some different kinds of transformation:

==== units of same dimension ====

e.g. foot to metre

==== units of compound but same dimension ====

e.g. metre/s and mach-number

==== compound measurement context ====

<pre>This switch works up to 5 Ampere by 220 Volt</pre>

The reader might to now, which Watt device he can attach (1100 Watt would be the answer).

<pre>The dimension of the box is 3m x 2m x 0.55m</pre>

There might be some question like:
* volume (3,3 m³)
* surface (17,5 m²)

=== Approache ===

A generall measurement should make use of the following informations:

value: a number, which represents the amount of the measurement. The number should follow one of the following representation:
* natural (positiv and negativ): e.g. -1, 0, 1
* decimal fraction (positiv and negativ): e.g. -2.5, 0.123
* natural fraction (positiv and negativ): e.g. -2/3, 3/7
scale: a factor used to lower the needed numbers of the value. The scale should be either
* a letter to refer a build-in factor, which is defined in [http://aurora.regenstrief.org/UCUM/ucum.html#section-Prefixes The Unified Code for Units of Measure] or [http://www.w3.org/TR/mathml-units/#SI-prefixes MathML]).
* a number like defined on value
unit: the unit used for the measurement. The unit should follow one of the following reprensentation:
* build-in short-form like defined on [http://www.unece.org/etrades/units.htm Standards for Trade and Electronic Business] (or any other defined list which will be defined as the standard list for this format)
* a reference to a unit definition. (I think there is the need of a markup/language to define new units and/or the transformation between units).

<pre>
<abbr class="value" title="5">Five</abbr> <abbr class="scale" title="k">kilo</abbr> <abbr class="unit" title="MTR">metre</abbr>
</pre>

when we have a defined sub-measurement format for length, it could also be written:

<pre>
<abbr class="value" title="5">Five</abbr> <abbr class="scale" title="k">kilo</abbr> <abbr class="unit" title="MTR">metre</abbr>
</pre>

==== List of possible Sub-Formats ====

Here is a (first) list of possible keywords for sub-formats and their unit list or compound kind:

* money - unit limit to the ISO 4217 List
* '''length''' - unit limited to e.g. MTR (Metre), FOT (Foot) ....)
** '''area'''
*** Either a measurement with units like MTK (Square Metre), FTK (Square Foot)
*** or a compound format with elements (width:length, height:length)
** '''volumen'''
*** Either a measurement with units like MTQ (Cubic Metre), FTQ (Cubic Foot), LTR (Litre) ...
*** or a compound format with elements (width:length, height:length, depth:length)
* time or duration or '''period''' - unit limited to e.g. sec (second), min (minute) ...
* mass or '''weight''' - unit limited to GRM (Gram), ...
* power or '''electricity''' - unot limited to AMP (Ampere), OHM (Ohm), ...

2007-01-01T20:04:58Z

Emil: Added Alternative 3, which introduces scale and replaces currency with the unit element.

measure-formats

2006-12-31T17:16:33Z

Emil: SI Base Units made it a table

= Measure Formats =

This is a collection of existing [[measure]] formats.

== UNECE ==

[http://www.unece.org UNECE], the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe has standardized the [http://www.unece.org/etrades/units.htm measurement unit codes] for use in Trade.

== ACORD ==

[http://www.acord.org ACORD], a leading insurance standardization organization uses the following semantics for expressing measures:
* Measurement
** NumUnits (Required) Decimal
** UnitMeasurementCd (Optional) the value must be one of the ones defined by UNECE.

== Systeme International ==

The internation system of measures consists of [http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/units.html base and derived units of measure].

For instance, meter (m) is the elementary unit of length, second (s) the elementary unit of time, and speed or velocity is derived and expressed in meter per second (m/s).

===SI Base Units===

<table>
<tr><td>Name</td><td>Symbol</td><td>Quantity</td></tr>
<tr><td>metre</td><td>m</td><td>Length</td></tr>
<tr><td>kilogram</td><td>kg</td><td>Mass</td></tr>
<tr><td>second</td><td>s</td><td>Time</td></tr>
<tr><td>ampere</td><td>A</td><td>Electrical current</td></tr>
<tr><td>kelvin</td><td>K</td><td>Thermodynamic temperature</td></tr>
<tr><td>mole</td><td>mol</td><td>Amount of substance</td></tr>
<tr><td>candela</td><td>cd</td><td>Luminous intensity</td></tr>
</table>

===SI Derived Units===

area square meter m2
volume cubic meter m3
speed, velocity meter per second m/s
acceleration meter per second squared m/s2
wave number reciprocal meter m-1
mass density kilogram per cubic meter kg/m3
specific volume cubic meter per kilogram m3/kg
current density ampere per square meter A/m2
magnetic field strength ampere per meter A/m
amount-of-substance concentration mole per cubic meter mol/m3
luminance candela per square meter cd/m2
mass fraction kilogram per kilogram, which may be represented by the number 1 kg/kg = 1

== The Unified Code for Units of Measure ==

[http://aurora.regenstrief.org/UCUM/ucum.html The Unified Code for Units of Measure]

== UBL ==

"[http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/cd-UBL-1.0/ UBL] is designed to provide a universally understood and recognized commercial syntax for legally binding business documents and to operate within a standard business framework such as ISO 15000 (ebXML) to provide a complete, standards-based infrastructure that can extend the benefits of existing EDI systems to businesses of all sizes."

UBL uses the following semantics for prices:

* In the context of an Order. a LineItem can have a Quantity which is qualified with a unitCode.
* In the context of the price of a product: a Price has a PriceAmount qualified with a currencyID, and a BaseQuantity (usually 1) qualified with a unitCode.

The value of unitCode are those defined by UNECE.

Main Page

2006-12-28T21:25:58Z

Emil: /* Exploratory Discussions */

__NOTOC__
<h1>Microformats Wiki</h1>

'''Hello!''' Welcome to the microformats wiki. If this is your first visit, please see the [[introduction]] page.

Please read [[how-to-play]] before making any edits.

Please read [[process]] before proposing any new microformats.

__TOC__

==Getting Started==

[[what-are-microformats|What are microformats]]? [[what-can-you-do-with-microformats|What can you do with them]]?

The [http://microformats.org/about/ about page], [http://microformats.org/ latest news], plus recent [[press]], [[presentations]], [[podcasts]], and [[screencasts]] are also good places for some background information.

Frequently asked questions about the wiki and microformats in general are answered in the [[faq|FAQ]], and there is a [[glossary]].

Want to learn more in person? Check out [[events|microformats events]].

==Definition==

One popular definition from our [http://microformats.org/discuss/ mailing list] (see also: [[mailing-lists]]) is "simple conventions for embedding semantics in HTML to enable decentralized development." More precisely, microformats can be defined as:
:simple conventions
:for embedding semantic markup
::for a specific problem domain
:in human-readable (X)HTML/XML documents, Atom/RSS feeds, and "plain" XML
::that normalize existing content usage patterns
::using brief, descriptive class names
::often based on existing interoperable standards
:to enable decentralized development
::of resources, tools, and services

Simply put: "Microformats are a codification of convention." -- [http://easy-reader.net Aaron Gustafson]

"Or do you just use your browser to browse? That's so 20th century." -- [http://diveintomark.org Mark Pilgrim]

== How to contribute ==

Do you want to help take microformats to the next level? You can:

*Check out our open [[to-do|to do list]] for things to help get done.
*Join the [http://microformats.org/discuss mailing lists] and [[irc|IRC Channel]] to learn and help answer questions about microformats.
*[[advocacy|Advocate]] the use of microformats.
*help to [[Main_Page#microformats_wiki_in_other_languages|translate the microformats wiki into other languages]] to make microformats globally accessible.

== Specifications ==
[[microformats|Microformats]] open standards specifications (see also: [[implementations]])
* [[hcalendar|hCalendar]] - [http://microformats.org/code/hcalendar/creator hcalendar creator]
* [[hcard|hCard]] - [http://microformats.org/code/hcard/creator hcard creator]
* [[rel-license]]
* [[rel-nofollow]]
* [[rel-tag]]
* [[vote-links|VoteLinks]]
* [http://gmpg.org/xfn/ XFN] (see also: [[xfn-implementations]])
* [http://gmpg.org/xmdp/ XMDP]
* [[xoxo|XOXO]]

== Drafts ==
* [[adr|adr]]
* [[geo|geo]]
* [[hatom|hAtom]] {{NewMarker}}
* [[hresume|hResume]] {{NewMarker}}
* [[hreview|hReview]] - [http://microformats.org/code/hreview/creator hreview creator]
* [[rel-directory]]
* [[rel-enclosure]]
* [[rel-home]]
* [[relpayment-research | rel-payment]]
* [[robots-exclusion|Robots Exclusion]]
* [[xfolk|xFolk]]

== Design Patterns ==

{{design_patterns}} 

== Exploratory Discussions ==
Research and analysis of real-world [[examples]], existing formats, and brainstorming to motivate the microformat. Please check [[rejected-formats]] before making additions.

*alternates [[alternates-brainstorming|alternates brainstorming]], [[alternates-examples|alternates examples]]
*[[attention]]
* blog description [[blog-description-examples|blog description examples]]
* blog info [[blog-info-examples|blog info examples]]
* blog post [[blog-post-examples|examples]], [[blog-post-formats|blog post formats]], and [[blog-post-brainstorming|blog post brainstorming]] (yielded the [[hatom|hAtom]] draft)
* book [[book-examples|book examples]], [[book-formats|book formats]], and [[book-brainstorming|book brainstorming]]
* chat [[chat-examples|chat examples]], [[chat-formats|chat formats]], and [[chat-brainstorming|chat brainstorming]]
* citation [[citation|citation effort]], [[citation-examples|citation examples]], [[citation-formats|citation formats]], [[citation-brainstorming|citation brainstorming]], and [[citation-faq|citation FAQ]]
* comment [[comment-problem|comment problem]], [[comment-examples|comment examples]], and [[comments-formats|comment formats]] (Some stuff needs to be extracted from [[comments-formats]])
* [[collection-description|collection description]] {{NewMarker}}
* [[course-catalog]]; [[course-catalog-examples]] {{NewMarker}}
* [[currency]]; [[currency-examples]]; [[currency-brainstorming]]; [[currency-proposal]]; [[currency-issues]] {{NewMarker}}
* directions [[directions-examples|directions examples]] {{NewMarker}}
* directory inclusion [[directory-inclusion-examples|directory inclusion examples]], [[directory-inclusion-formats|directory inclusion formats]]. (see also [[rel-directory]])
* distributed conversation [[distributed-conversation|distributed conversation overview]], [[distributed-conversation-brainstorming|distributed conversation brainstorming]], [[distributed-conversation-examples|distributed conversation examples]], and [[distributed-conversation-formats|distributed conversation formats]]
* forms [[forms-examples|forms examples]]
* genealogy [[genealogy-formats|genealogy examples]]
* group [[group-brainstorming|group brainstorming]] and [[group-examples|group examples]]
* items [[items-brainstorming|items brainstorming]] and [[items-examples|items examples]
* hash [[hash-examples|hash examples]]
* job listing [[job-listing-examples|job listing examples]] and [[job-listing-brainstorming|job listing brainstorming]]
* last modified [[last-modified-examples|last modified examples]], [[last-modified-formats|last modified formats]], and [[last-modified-brainstorming|last modified brainstorming]]
* hListing [[hlisting-proposal|hListing proposal]], and [[hlisting-feedback|hListing feedback]] {{NewMarker}}
** Also, listing [[listing-examples|examples]], [[listing-formats|formats]], and [[listing-brainstorming|brainstorming]]
* [[hproduct|hProduct]] - [[hproduct-brainstorming|hProduct brainstorming]] | [[hproduct-feedback|hProduct discussion]] | [[hproduct-examples|hProduct examples]] {{NewMarker}}
* location [[location-formats|location formats]]. (see also [[adr]] and [[geo]])
* [[luna]] ([[geo]]-like co-ordinates, for places on The Moon) - see also [[geo-extension-strawman]] a possible implementation {{NewMarker}}
* [[mars]] ([[geo]]-like co-ordinates, for places on the planet Mars) - see also [[geo-extension-strawman]] a possible implementation {{NewMarker}}
* measures and measurement units [[measure]]
* [[media-info]] ([[media-info-examples|media-info examples]], [[media-info-formats|media-info formats]], [[media-info-brainstorming|media-info brainstorming]])
* meeting minutes [[meeting-minutes-examples|meeting minutes examples]], [[meeting-minutes-formats|meeting minutes formats]], and [[meeting-minutes-brainstorming|meeting minutes brainstorming]]
* metalink [[metalink-examples|metalink examples]] {{NewMarker}}
* microsummary [[microsummary-brainstorming|microsummary brainstorming]] {{NewMarker}}
* [[mfo-examples|MFO examples]]
* music [[music-examples|music examples]]
* photo note [[photo-note-examples|photo note examples]]
*[[question-answer]], [[question-answer-brainstorming]]; [[question-answer-examples]] {{NewMarker}}
* recipe [[recipe-examples|recipe examples]], [[recipe-brainstorming]] {{NewMarker}}
* rel-product [[rel-product-brainstorming|rel-product brainstorming]]
* requirements testing [[requirements-testing|requirements testing overview]], and [[requirements-testing-examples|requirements testing examples]]
* [[rest-examples|REST examples]]
* resume [[resume-brainstorming|resume brainstorming]], and [[resume-formats|resume formats]]
* review [[review-examples|review examples]], and [[review-formats|review formats]] (yielded the [[hreview|hReview]] draft)
* search results [[search-results-example|search results example]]
* show [[show-brainstorming|show brainstorming]]
* showroll [[showroll-brainstorming|brainstorming]]
* [[species]] - for the marking up of the scientific names of living things: [[species-examples]]; [[species-brainstorming]] {{NewMarker}}
* table [[table-examples|examples]]
* tagspeak [[tagspeak-examples|tagspeak examples]]
* tagcloud [[tagcloud-examples|tagcloud examples]], and [[tagcloud-brainstorming|tagcloud brainstorming]]. {{NewMarker}}
* transit table [[transit-table-examples|transit table examples]]
* [[uid]]
* widget [[widget-examples|widget examples]], and [[widget-brainstorming|widget brainstorming]]
* [[wiki-formats|wiki formats]]
* work of art [[work-of-art|work of art overview]], [[workofart-examples|work of art examples]], [[workofart-formats|work of art formats]], and [[workofart-brainstorming|work of art brainstorming]] {{NewMarker}}
*[[xmdp-brainstorming|XMDP brainstorming]] (see also [[xmdp-faq]])

== Examples ==
* [[examples]]
* [[zen-garden]]

== Tools, Test Cases and Additional Research ==

The first place to look for examples, code, and test cases is in the pages for each individual microformat. There are only a few cross-cutting tools and services that need to process more than one microformat. This section is intended for editors, parsers, validators, test cases, and other information relevant across multiple microformats.

*[[accessibility]]
*[[faqs-for-rdf]]
*[[icalendar-implementations]]
*[[parsing-microformats]]
*[[selected-test-cases-from-the-web]]
*[http://hg.microformats.org/ Source code repository] -- [[mercurial-quick-start|HowTo: Download code from the repository]]
*[[vcard-implementations]], [[vcard-errata]], [[vcard-suggestions]]
*[[why-are-content-standards-hard]]

== shared work areas ==
* [[buttons]]
* [[spread-microformats]] {{NewMarker}}
* [[demo]] - a page with links for quickly demonstrating microformats working in practice.
* [[events]] {{NewMarker}}
* [[to-do]]
* [[user-interface]]
* [[marked-for-deletion]]
* [[microformats-issues]] {{NewMarker}} - issues related to more than one microformat.

== microformats wiki in other languages ==

You may read and edit microformats articles in many other languages:

* languages with over 50 articles
** [[Main_Page-fr|Français (French)]] {{NewMarker-fr}}
* languages with over 10 articles
** [[Main_Page-pt-br| Português (Brazilian Portuguese)]] {{NewMarker-pt-br}}
** [[Main_Page-ja|日本語 (Japanese)]]
* languages with over 2 articles
** [[Main_Page-es|Español (Spanish)]]
** [[Main_Page-de|Deutsch (German)]]

==== microformats translations elsewhere ====
These are off-site pages/sites with translations about microformats. If you are working on one of these, please consider translating the main microformats website!
* [http://mikroformate.pbwiki.com/ Deutsch (German) mikroformate.pbwiki.com] {{NewMarker-de}}

=== Start a microformats wiki in another language ===

Don't see the language you want? Help translate the microformats wiki into another language!

We're still figuring this out.

For now, see the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Multilingual_coordination Wikipedia page on Multilingual coordination], and [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/How_to_start_a_new_Wikipedia How to start a new Wikipedia] for some good general tips, advice, and community conventions.

You may want to start with the list of [[stable-pages]], which are pages that are relatively stable, and have only minimal/editorial changes, which makes them much easier to keep in sync with the English versions, by using the [[Special:Watchlist|my watchlist]] feature (use it to watch the pages you've translated for changes).

Page naming: for the translated version of a page, use the same name for the page, and simply add the RFC 3066 language identifier code as a dash suffix. E.g. for the French version, [[Main_Page]] becomes [[Main_Page-fr]], and [[how-to-play]] becomes [[how-to-play-fr]].

==== more languages folks want to see ====

* Chinese: 微格式 (Microformats) (see [http://msittig.blogspot.com/2005/11/since-i-translated-schedule-of.html source of translation])
* Does somebody want to see a Dutch translation???

currency-proposal

2006-12-28T21:25:00Z

Emil:

= Currency =

'''currency''' is a simple microformat for marking up money amounts, such as prices of products/services or financial facts.

== Introduction ==

Money amounts are one of the most widespread content found on the Web, but the lack of unambiguous representation of the currency they are expressed in, or the date that they relate to, makes comparison and matching of offerings online difficult.

== Acknowledgments ==

This proposal was written based on the contributions of several members of the community. Original brainstorming ideas and strawman proposal can be viewed at [[currency-brainstorming]] and [[currency-brainstorming#Andy_Mabbett]]

== Scope ==

This proposal limits its scope to:
* money amounts expressed in one officially issued coins and notes. This means it currently does not support money amounts expressed in terms of commodities or other liquefiable asset.
* money amounts expressed in one unit. This means that it currently does not support composite amounts such as "39 U.S. Dollars and 99 Cents".

== Features ==

* Reuse of widely used ISO 4217 for unambiguous encoding of currency types: ensures interoperability with many existing and emerging industry standards such as [http://www.ifxforum.org IFX], [http://www.acord.org ACORD], [http://www.xbrl.org XBRL] or [http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/cd-UBL-1.0/ UBL].
* Define currency once, use anywhere: allows currency units to be defined once and then referred to, instead of locally defined for each money amount, resulting in ease of readability for both human users and their user agents.
* Timestamping: money amounts have an optional date that allows user agents to translate a historical figure to an equivalent present amount.

=== Root Class Name ===

The root class name for a money amount is <code>money</code>.

=== Property List ===

* Required <code>amount</code>: can mark up a machine-readable numerical value with a <code>span</code>element or a string value with a <code>abbr</code> whose <code>title</code> attribute contains the machine-readable numerical value (See [[abbr-design-pattern]]).
* Optional <code>currency</code>, or reference to a currency (See [[include-pattern]]). Must markup a ISO 4217 compliant code or use the [[abbr-design-pattern]] to provide the equivalent ISO 4217 machine readable value to the marked up human-readable value.
* Optional <code>unit</code>, or reference to a unit of the currency (See [[include-pattern]]), for instance a "dollar" or "cent". This proposal does not specify how the unit must be marked up. This is the focus of the [[measure]] microformats. When not present, the unit is assumed to be the default unit for the given currency. For instance, "Dollar" for the U.S. currency.
* Optional <code>date</code> following the [[datetime-design-pattern]], specifies the date that must be used to evaluate the value of the currency unit used.

=== Examples ===

Simple in-line example with local definition of the currency unit: <abbr class="currency" title="USD">$</abbr>39.99

<pre>
<abbr class="currency" title="USD">$</abbr>39.99
</pre>

Text representation of the amount: <abbr class="amount">Thirty-nine</abbr> <abbr class="currency" title="USD">Dollars</abbr>

<pre>
<abbr class="amount" title="39">Thirty-nine</abbr> <abbr class="currency" title="USD">Dollars</abbr>
</pre>

Example using the <code>unit</code> class: 99<abbr class="unit">¢</abbr><abbr class="currency" title="USD"></abbr>

<pre>
99<abbr class="unit">¢</abbr><abbr class="currency" title="USD"></abbr>
</pre>

Table example with global definition of the currency:

<pre>
<table>
<tr><th>Price in <abbr id="u1" class="currency" title="USD">US$</abbr></th></tr>
<tr><td><div class="money">39.99<a href="#u1" class="include"></a></div></td></tr>
</table>
</pre>

== Issues ==

Discussion of this proposal by specific problems on [[currency-issues]].

2006-12-25T10:30:03Z

Emil:

= Measure Microformat Brainstorming =

This page collects ideas on how to use semantic XHTML to represent unambiguously [[measure]]s.

== Guillaume Lebleu ==

Basic example with elementary unit using the abbr pattern and the UNECE code (see [[measure-formats]])

<pre>
5 <abbr class="unit" title="FOT">Feet</abbr>
</pre>

Optional "value" could be useful in some cases, for instance when the value is provided in plain text:

<pre>
<abbr class="value" title="5">Five</abbr> <abbr class="unit" title="FOT">Feet</abbr>
</pre>

==Andy Mabbett==
This Firefox extension may be of interest. Note, though, that it's been criticised for having a "nag" screen: [https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2286/ Converter] [[User:AndyMabbett|AndyMabbett]] 15:32, 3 Oct 2006 (PDT)

:This is the author of that extension. I don't want to go much into this, but I just want to clarify this briefly. The part with the nag screen is wrong on two counts: (1) that dialog isn't there anymore, and (2) even if it was there, you only needed to read a paragraph and click a button to make it go away ''forever'' -- but you don't have to take my word for it, install it for yourselves and see. Andy's report is accurate however -- the extension '''''was''''' criticized for that dialog (that's what you get from your free extension's users when you ask for 15 seconds of their time in return for hundreds of hours of your time). --[[User:BogdanStancescu|BogdanStancescu]] 09:35, 9 Oct 2006 (PDT)

==Bogdan Stăncescu==
Here are my findings related to automatic parsing of measurements on web pages while developing the [http://converter.mozdev.org Converter] extension. Please ask away if you want me to go into more detail on any of the topics -- I'm not sure which of my experiences are relevant to microformats, so I'm going to give you an overview of my conclusions.

By the way of an introduction, the Converter is a Firefox extension which tries to convert all measurements it finds in any web page to their Imperial or metric counterpart (e.g. Fahrenheit to Celsius, and Celsius to Fahrenheit; meters to feet and feet to meters). There are two steps to the conversion process: (1) identifying the measurements in the page, and (2) converting them. As expected, the conversion part is trivial, at least conceptually. The parsing is the tricky bit, and that's also where the Converter's challenges also become relevant for microformats.

Here are the main challenges I have encountered while writing the Converter:

;Presentation standardization: The first, biggest and most obvious challenge is lack of almost any ''de facto'' standardization in respect to data presentation. What I mean is that although the units themselves are more or less standardized (more on that later), they are ''presented'' in various ways within web pages. Take these examples: "50 foot monster", "50 ft monster", "50 feet monster", "50-foot monster", "50-feet monster" -- and my personal favorite, "fifty-foot monster" (more on this later);

:Note that using a microformat using in particular the [[abbr-design-pattern]] would make each of these examples less ambiguous if not unambiguous. See below --[[User:Guillaume_Lebleu|Guillaume_Lebleu]]:

<pre>
50<abbr class="unit" title="FOT">foot</abbr> monster
</pre>

<pre>
50<abbr class="unit" title="FOT">ft</abbr> monster
</pre>

<pre>
50-<abbr class="unit" title="FOT">foot</abbr> monster
</pre>

<pre>
50<abbr class="unit" title="FOT">feet</abbr> monster
</pre>

<pre>
<abbr class="value" title="50">fifty</abbr><abbr class="unit" title="FOT">foot</abbr> monster
</pre>

:: Of course; as far as I could gather, that's actually the ''purpose'' of microformats -- bridging the gap between what humans and machines can understand, no? --[[User:BogdanStancescu|BogdanStancescu]] 00:30, 11 Oct 2006 (PDT)

;Unit standardization: I live in Europe, where I've always used the metric system. As such, this probably was a much bigger nasty surprise for me than it is for a user of the Imperial/U.S. Customary system: in the Imperial system, the units themselves vary depending on where you are -- miles, pints, and a whole lot of other units come in many different flavors, but they're all written the same in regular usage;

;Language: "1 meter" vs. "1 metre" is a reasonable difference -- but non-SI units are usually translated. Even some SI units have different plurals, depending on the language, although in theory SI units are actually denoted by ''symbols'', not "words", as to make them non-translatable, and truly international (hence the name of the SI). I haven't really given much thought to a solution towards parsing these, because I find it overwhelming for the time.

;The sheer number of units: surprisingly, most people don't realize just how many units we humans have invented. Just take a look here: [http://www.asknumbers.com/ asknumbers.com] -- see how many categories there are? Now click on Flow Rate -- a non-ubiquitous type of measurement. Three sub-categories only for flow rates! Now click on Volume Flow Rate and take a look at the number of units in those lists. Remember, those are just in one of the three categories for flow rate! The UNECE standard mentioned in the [[measure-formats#Measure_Formats|measure formats]] page is useful to define just that -- a ''standard'' set of units. But in practice there are a lot more being used out there.

:Do you have examples from the Web (a URL) of non-UNECE units. One possibility would be to provide the ability for a unit to be defined as a division of products of other units. This is consistent with the [[measure-formats#Systeme_International]], which defines 7 base units and all other units as derived units (of course some units, even though they are derived are much easily represented as simple ones). This is what XBRL has done for financial/accounting/reporting. See [[currency-formats#XBRL]] and theorical example (ampere acre per second) below --[[User:Guillaume_Lebleu|Guillaume_Lebleu]]:

::Unfortunately I don't have URLs -- almost at all -- with measurements, although I've been in the "business" for a while. The reason for this is that I collect URLs of pages I encounter which are not properly parsed by the Converter, and when I release a version which understands those, I delete the URLs. Also, I never intended to cover all units in the Converter myself, for a multitude of reasons -- therefore I was never interested in the more exotic ones.

Guillaume Lebleu's example
<pre>

<abbr class="unit" title="AMP">Ampere</abbr> <abbr class="unit" title="ACR">acre</abbr> per <abbr class="unit" title="SEC">second</abbr>

</pre>

::Regarding your idea of breaking down the units in base units, that's something I've also been toying with in my head for the Converter. For my particular application, it's technically more difficult to implement this breakdown. For microformats, it would be easier, but there still remains at least one potential problem: you end up with a huge mess in the page. If a standard is too complicated to follow, one tends to give up altogether.

::Consider a document which actually discusses some sort of current variation per farm, and therefore needs to repeatedly refer to ampere acres per second. For human use, they'd simply define the AAS somewhere at the top of the document, and then refer to AAS, KAAS or MAAS as needed. Maybe a similar approach should be considered for microformats as well:

<pre>
We define the

<abbr class="unit_name">AAS
as
<abbr class="unit" title="AMP">Ampere</abbr>
<abbr class="unit" title="ACR">acre</abbr>
per
<abbr class="unit" title="SEC">second</abbr>
.
</pre>

::And then use the "AAS" throughout the document as any other pre-defined unit. How would you define (and use) the KAAS (1000 AAS) or MAAS (1,000,000 AAS) though? Is there any standard way already to use data multipliers in microformats? Or should we discuss that? Or is it out of scope? --[[User:BogdanStancescu|BogdanStancescu]] 00:30, 11 Oct 2006 (PDT)

That's all I can think of as major hurdles right now. If I remember anything else, I'll post here. Please do give me feedback here if you want to ask more about any of the topics I touched above, or if you have other questions I might be able to reply to. --[[User:BogdanStancescu|BogdanStancescu]] 12:08, 9 Oct 2006 (PDT)

==Discoleo==
=== Measurement Classification ===

Because it is easier to provide examples, I will first list examples.

==== Categorical vs Ordinal Data ====

Various measurements may produce '''NON-Numerical''' values:
* a pain scale: '''most severe''', '''very severe''', '''severe''', ...
* or the TNM tumour classification system: T0, Tx, T1, T2, T3, T4, N0, ...

There is even a more fundamental issue related to numbers themselves, e.g.:
* '''Lists''' or '''Years''' are sometimes written using '''Roman Numbers'''
** however, the strings corresponding to ''Roman Numbers'', when sorted alphabetically, do NOT retain the correct order
** i.e. C (100) preceds L (50), which preceds X (10)
* there are other numbering schemes

==== A Single Value / Data Point ====

This is the most simple data format and pretty straitforward to implement.

* the distance between 2 cities is '''40 km'''
* the velocity is '''62 mph'''
* most other simple entires (...)

==== An Interval Measurement ====

* time: the shop is open between '''6am - 18pm''' on every day of the week, exept Saturdays from '''9am - 16pm''' and Sundays from '''9am - 13pm'''
**[[hcalendar|hCalendar]]? [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]] 09:24, 22 Nov 2006 (PST)

This is more about an interval measurement. Every variable can have 2 (or more) values, e.g.:
* the levels of rain fall were between 25mm - 35mm
* the maximum velocity of various cars was 220 - 250 km/h

Should these values be stored as separate values? [e.g. low / high]
Or should the microformats be able to store an interval?

See also the examples for statistical summaries below.

*Mark up each as a separate measurement, and wrap them in a "range" microforamt? [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]] 11:36, 22 Nov 2006 (PST)

==== Matrices ====

* the GPS coordinates are '''12°14' N and 25°55' E'''
**[[geo|Geo]]? [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]] 09:25, 22 Nov 2006 (PST)
* the dimension of the box is '''3m x 2m x 0.55m'''
**this is three separate, single measurements, surely? [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]] 09:21, 22 Nov 2006 (PST)
** 3 x 2 x 0.55 cubic meter, still 3 measurements, BUT given as cubic meter => ONE measurement?
***Who writes 3x2x0.55 cubic meter? You'd write "3.3m3" [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]] 11:36, 22 Nov 2006 (PST)
** the surface was 2 x 3 square feet ???
***Who writes 2x3 sq ft? You'd write "2ftx3ft" or "6ft2" [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]] 11:36, 22 Nov 2006 (PST)

* IF we write "3.3m3" or "6ft2", we '''loose information'''
* IF I want a surface, I would prefer the '''sqare feet''' unit, and NOT '''...feet x ...feet'''
* writing for every measure a markup, will '''bloat''' the code extensively
** data matrices would be very effective here

==== Statistical Measurements ====

Often, a group of data is summarized using a statistics:
* the mean length was 1.3m (SD 0.12m, group size 22)
* the median age was 42 years (interquartile range 95% 18 - 97)

==== Measurement Scales ====

===== Accuracy vs. Precision =====

'''QUESTIONS'''
* How detailed should a measurement be stored?
**Microformats aren't for storing measurements; they're for "labelling" the measurements that are already present. [[User:AndyMabbett|Andy Mabbett]] 09:23, 22 Nov 2006 (PST)
* If Accuracy and precision are relevant to the measurement, how do we store these?

===== Standardization of Measurement =====

* sometimes we may need to store the calibration information / calibration curves
* we may need to store the reference point the measurement is based on
* we may need to store the '''normal values'''
** biomedical measurements are often laboratory dependent, so it does NOT make sense to have the measurement without the corresponding normal values
** e.g. anti-Hepatitis B surface antigen antibody (anti-HBs) Titer: 32 MIU/ml
*** normal: 0 (non-infected, non-past infection, non-immunity)
*** protective immunity: >10 MIU/ml
*** interpretation is however more complex, depending on other tests as well

== Emil Thies ==

From my understanding, this microformat should concentrate on the notation of a measurement. So there will be some aspects, which has to be covered (elsewhere?) to improve the automatic use it.

=== Identification of Units ===

There are so many Units around - not only the existing one. There are deprecated ones like from Rome empire etc. For example "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_(unit_of_length) Foot]" is not an unique identification of a unit. There is not only the British and U.S., there are for example same old German ones, before those areas joined the international metre convention in 1875:
* 25 cm in Hessen
* 28,935 cm in Bremen
* 29,641 cm in Oldenburg
* 29,1859 cm in Bayern
* 30,385 cm in Meiningen-Hildburghausen
* 31,385 cm in Preußen
* 31,608 cm in Wien/Österreich
* 32,61 cm in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe
* 33 1/3 cm in der Pfalz

So there is the need of a unique identification of those units. I found two approach right:

==== In MathML ====

MathML [http://www.w3.org/TR/mathml-units/#definitionURL defines] the construction of an URI like:

http://base/units/unit name[/context][/country][#prefix]

<pre>
http://.../units/foot/de
</pre>

But as you can see, there is right now no way to distinguish the different German foots based on the area inside Germany. Furthermore the context is so variable, that the same unit can be described by different URLs.

==== In OpenMath ====

OpenMath [http://www.openmath.org/cdgroups/units.html defines] the units inside of content directories:

<pre>
http://www.openmath.org/cd/units_us1.xhtml#foot_us_survey
</pre>

So there is a unique URLs for a Unit, but not every Unit is covered.

=== Transformation of Units ===

A real benefit is the automatic transformation of a unit, so that the write can write the measurement in his context (e.g. in the U.S. foot, or a quote from an antike text in Rome Empire foot) and the reader can get a transformation in his context (e.g. the value in metre). There fore there is the need of additional transformation information. And there are some different kinds of transformation:

==== units of same dimension ====

e.g. foot to metre

==== units of compound but same dimension ====

e.g. metre/s and mach-number

==== compound measurement context ====

e.g. "This switch works up to 5 Ampere by 220 Volt" The reader might to now, which Watt device he can attach (1100 Watt would be the answer).

e.g. units of common context: e.g. "the dimension of the box is 3m x 2m x 0.55m" there might be some question like:
* volume (3,3 m³)
* surface (17,5 m²)