[OAI-implementers] Reconsidering mandatory DC in OAI-PMH

[Alan Kent]

On Mon, Aug 04, 2003 at 03:49:17PM -0400, Carl Lagoze wrote:
> 1. Change the Dublin Core requirement to a recommendation.
> 2. Leave oai_dc as a reserved metadataPrefix
> 3. Move the oai_dc part of protocol document to Implementation
> Guidelines

No comments about 3, but I agree with 1 and 2.

If two parties want to talk to each other, they need to agree on how
they are going to talk. Supporting oai_dc is a good thing to do, but
there is nothing in the protocol that will break if DC is not supported.
If two parties want to use OAI to exchange data in a closed environment,
they will probably not bother supporting oai_dc anyway.

So I can see no harm in degrading oai_dc from a requirement to a
recommendation (with prose explaining why it is a good thing to support).

Alan