HTML 5 Microdata Use Cases
I mentioned in my previous post on the HTML 5 microdata draft that it included a use case from me; it’s this one:
A scholar and teacher wants other scholars (and potentially students) to be able to easily extract information about who he is to add it to their contact databases.
This is close to my description, but significantly narrower. Compare my words:
I want to be able to add structured data to my web site to denote who I am, what I have published, and what I teach in such a way that other scholars (and potentially students) can easily extract that information to add it to their contact databases, or to their bibliographic applications, or whatever. This involves contact data, for sure, but also other, domain specific, data, as well, and so presumes a flexible and extensible model and syntax.
The distinction is important because it makes clear that fixed encoding formats like hCard are not close to adequate; this is not just about a one-size-fits-all profile format, nor about possible integration into one particular kind of application (a contact database).
