[Wikipedia-l] Re: [Wikitech-l] I never metadata I didn't like

Fri Dec 5 18:30:20 UTC 2003

Evan Prodromou wrote:

>>>>>>"TC" == The Cunctator <cunctator at kband.com> writes:
>>>>>>            
>>>>>>
>
>    TC> Moreover, this isn't really (only) a discussion for
>    TC> wikitech-l.
>
>How to put metadata into articles is a tech question.
>
>What metadata fields to define -- like "category" -- and how to use
>them is an implementation question. It would vary from installation to
>installation.
>
>~ESP
>
>  
>
How about just allowing links with equals signs in, like this:

[[predicate=object]] in RDF terminology, where the article is the subject.

Note that this has the advantage of currently being an illegal format 
for links, so we won't break anything.

So, we could in principle have things like

[[category=biology]]
[[author=J. R. Hartley]]
[[author=W. Mandella]]
[[latlong=21.2N 33.4E]]
[[OSGB=SN 045 055]]

There should be no restriction on either the predicate or object values 
other than that is that neither can contain "]" or "=": hopefully, data 
formats that are useful will be invented and standardised by the normal 
Wikipedia process. 

In this way, we don't overload the current use of colons for namespaces, 
but make the insertion of name-value pairs fairly intuitive.
This way, both the chosen predicates, and the choices of values for 
those predicates, can be chosen by the community.

Again: the knotty issue is how to display these values in normal article 
rendering to users who are not editing, as these values will only 
accumulate cruft if they are not visible for peer review.

Suggestion: a line near the top of the article showing

  Author: J. R. Hartley, W. Mandella; Category: biology; Latlong: 21.2N 
33.4E; OSGB: SN 045 055

We can then have special links to [[Category:]] articles for the 
_predicate_ names (where their definitions, formats etc. can be defined 
and discussed), and to Wikipedia articles for the values.

-- Neil