Vocabulary Hosting: A Modest Proposal
Harry Halpin, Tom Baker · 2010
Many of the benefits of structured data come about when users can re-use existing vocabularies rather than create new ones, but it is currently difficult for users to find, create, and host new vocabularies. Moreover as a foundation for applications, the value of any given vocabulary depends on the perceived certainty that the vocabulary – both its machine-readable schemas and human-readable specification documents – will remain reliably accessible over time and that its URIs will not be sold, re-purposed, or simply forgotten. This note proposes two approaches for solving these problems: one for multiple Vocabulary Hosting Services and a Vocabulary Preservation System to keep them linked together. Many of the benefits of structured data come about when users can re-use existing vocabularies rather than create new ones, but it is currently difficult for users to find, create, and host new vocabularies. Moreover as a foundation for applications, the value of any given vocabulary depends on the perceived certainty that the vocabulary – both its machinereadable schemas and human-readable specification documents – will remain reliably accessible over time and that its URIs will not be sold, re-purposed, or simply forgotten. This note proposes a Vocabulary Hosting Service (VHS) for meeting immediate needs and outlines a more comprehensive Vocabulary Preservation System (VPS) of the sort needed as a solution for the long term. A Vocabulary Hosting Service (VHS) needs to be made to meet immediate needs. Ideally, these sort of services would fulfill the following characteristics. • Addresses an immediate need by application developers for a managed persistence context in which to declare vocabularies. • The service would own a domain under which vocabularies can be created (in principle by anyone) with the certainty that the vocabulary URIs and related documentation will remain accessible. • Stewardship of such a service would lie with a group of stakeholders involving (potentially) groups like the W3C,