[OSGeo-Edu] Templates - Structured Documents or Metadata?

[Simon Cropper]

Hi,

At various times on this mail list and in the recent group meeting templates 
were raised as a means of standardising input by groups and in the preparation 
of educational material.

What do people actually mean when they say templates: structured documents 
like used by Latex or Metadata?

Structured documents create holes for set data and are immutable. Useful for 
standard input but can stymie creativity and innovation when it comes to 
creation of easy to use content.

Metadata means 'please supply all this data' - its format (style, fonts, etc 
is irrelevant) and order is irrelevant. Just as long as all the data is 
supplied then the educational material is free form and as the writer prefers.  

Metadata I believe should be available for all documents are listed below.

What do you think? Have I missed something?

<METADATA>

     <!-- only relevant for derived documents -->
     <THIS_DOCUMENT>
          <CREATOR></CREATOR>
          <DATE_PUBLISHED></DATE_PUBLISHED>
          <TITLE></TITLE>
          <EDITION></EDITION>
          <COPYRIGHT></COPYRIGHT>
          <URL></URL>
     </THIS_DOCUMENT>

     <ORIGINAL_DOCUMENT>
          <CREATOR></CREATOR>
          <DATE_PUBLISHED></DATE_PUBLISHED>
          <TITLE></TITLE>
          <EDITION></EDITION>
          <COPYRIGHT></COPYRIGHT>
          <URL></URL>
     </ORIGINAL_DOCUMENT>

     <!-- repeats depending on number of changes -->
     <CHANGES> 
          <DATE></DATE>
          <DESCRIPTION></DESCRIPTION>
          <EDITOR></EDITOR>
     </CHANGES>

     <!-- repeats depending on relevant software -->
     <SOFTWARE_TAG>
          <CREATOR></CREATOR>
          <DATE_PUBLISHED></DATE_PUBLISHED>
          <TITLE></TITLE>
          <VERSION></VERSION>
          <COPYRIGHT></COPYRIGHT>
          <URL></URL>
     </SOFTWARE_TAG>

     <!-- repeats depending on category -->
     <!-- categories could be standardised by OSGeo to make this more    
            valuable-->
     <CATEGORY_TAG>
          <CREATOR></CREATOR>
          <DATE_PUBLISHED></DATE_PUBLISHED>
          <TITLE></TITLE>
          <VERSION></VERSION>
          <COPYRIGHT></COPYRIGHT>
          <URL></URL>
     </SOFTWARE_TAG>
</METADATA>
<CONTENT></CONTENT>

Alternatively a potential workflow tutorial could have the following document 
structure, in addition to the metadata outlined above.

<DOCUMENT>

     <METADATA>
          ...
     </METADATA>

     <CONTENT>
          <WORKFLOW_TITLE></WORKFLOW_TITLE>
          <INTRODUCTION></INTRODUCTION>
          <SETUP></SETUP>
          <METHOD></METHOD>
          <EXPECTED_OUTPUT></EXPECTED_OUTPUT>
          <ERRORS></ERRORS>
     </CONTENT>

</DOCUMENT>


(C) Simon Cropper 2010. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia

-- 
Cheers Simon

	Simon Cropper
	Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd
	PO Box 160 Sunshine 3020
	P: 03 9311 5822. M: 041 830 3437
	W: http://www.botanicusaustralia.com.au