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tdwg / vocab

Vocabulary Maintenance Specification Task Group + SDS + VMS
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Implications of vocabulary changes on interaction between applications and archived data #3

Closed baskaufs closed 8 years ago

baskaufs commented 9 years ago

Issue raised by Tim Robertson: I would like to ask the group to consider the implications on applications making use of vocabularies and data that is archived using vocabularies which are changing. One such example is the deprecation of terms such as dwc:individualID in favour of dwc:organismID. Datasets are prepared and will remain for years using terms no longer existing. The specification has to provide guidance that supports retrieval of datasets over long periods of time.

baskaufs commented 9 years ago

To some extent, this depends on how we document the deprecation and specify replacement terms. So I've added the label "documentation"

baskaufs commented 9 years ago

Progress towards resolving this issue was made at the 2015-07-15 TG meeting. The draft version model provides a means for applications to discover whether a term is deprecated and to determine its replacement.

baskaufs commented 8 years ago

I'm going to close this issue because I think the draft documentation specification has a clear mechanism to allow users to discover the status of terms and to track how vocabularies and terms have changed over time. I'm not sure whether the vocabulary maintenance spec should include policies about the circumstances under which terms can be deprecated. If so, this could be reopened.