Evan Prodromou wrote:

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"TC" == The Cunctator cunctator@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