Toward EML2.0

[Matt Jones]

Hi Karen,

Thanks for the note.  A few comments...

We have recognized the need for an English language specification that 
accompanies the schemas and describes aspects of EML that are not 
described in the schemas themselves.  The current beta 9 spec has an 
initial attempt at providing such a spec, and can be found at:
http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/software/eml/eml20docs/eml-docbook.html
It needs work -- any contributions to writing this document would be 
greatly appreciated, as well as suggestions as to how the document 
should be structured.  Right now, we are automatically generating the 
technical aspects of the document directly from the schemas, and we are 
generating the rest from Docbook sources that we've written.

I completely agree about the party module.  A long while ago (at the 
first EML workshop in Albuquerque), and in earlier versions of EML, I 
had argued for and implemented an identifying attribute for parties 
(e.g., a username or userid field) that was specific within some 
authentication system so that parties in EML documents could be tied 
directly to authentication databases like the ecoinfo/nceas/lter ldap 
server.  Peter and Corinna and others argued strongly that such an ID 
was completely unneeded, and so it was removed several versions back. 
Under the new revision of beta9, however, we have re-instituted the 
concept of an "id" in party as part of the referencing scheme.  So now, 
presumably, a party could be listed with an id and a reference to an 
authentication system such as the ecoinfo ldap server, and it would be 
unambiguous.  So, I think the current system in Beta9 does in fact allow 
strong ties to personnel databases. Do you agree?  Here's an example 
snippet that would be eml beta9 compliant:

<creator id="uid=jones,o=NCEAS,dc=ecoinformatics,dc=org" 
system="ldap://ldap.ecoinformatics.org/dc=ecoinformatics,dc=org" 
scope="system">
   <individualName><surName>Jones</surName></individualName>
</creator>

Regards,
Matt

-- 
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Matt Jones                                    jones at nceas.ucsb.edu
http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/    Fax: 425-920-2439   Ph: 907-789-0496
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)

Interested in ecological informatics? http://www.ecoinformatics.org
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