Dxwg: Version definition [RVSDF]

[jpullmann]

Version definition [RVSDF]

Provide clear guidance on conditions, type and severity of a resource's update that might motivate the creation of a new version in scenarios such as dataset evolution, conversion, translations etc, including how this may assist change management processes for consumers (e.g. semantic versioning techniques)

Related requirements: Version subject [RVSS] 
Related use cases: Dataset Versioning Information [ID4] Annotating changes that do not change the information content [ID50] 

[dr-shorthair]

See email thread from September-November last year:

https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-dxwg-wg/2017Oct/0021.html
https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-dxwg-wg/2017Nov/0001.html

[andrea-perego]

I wonder whether there are definitions of "versions" from standards / communities we can be inspired from.

Actually, it would be already useful to document / compare how the notion of "version" is defined and implemented in different domains / communities.

[makxdekkers]

@andrea-perego I am not sure it is doable to look for ways that different communities are handling versions. There are a lot of communities that could be considered. In the end, I agree with what @dr-shorthair wrote back in October 2017 (https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-dxwg-wg/2017Oct/0017.html):
"_the notion of 'version' is usually a publisher's choice to assign a memorable identifier to a product_".
So it may depend on the type of product, the intentions of the publisher and the expectations of the consumer. There might not be much consensus even within a particular community.
In my mind, a fundamental characteristic of a version is that it is a resource that results from a change that was applied to or occurred in a pre-existing resource. In my mind, such a definition would point to the need, as a minimum, to be able to provide:

• a reference to the resource of which it is a version
• a name, number or timestamp (e.g. 'MkII', '3.0.1 build 1902', '2018' etc.)
• a description of what the changes were (e.g a change log)

I think that we may not be able to go much further than that without digging into the particular aspects of specific products and communities. This could take a lot of time for little gain.

[makxdekkers]

The European DCAT-AP specifies for those three aspects:

• dct:isVersionOf: a related Dataset of which the described Dataset is a version, edition, or adaptation.
• owl:versionInfo: a version number or other version designation of the Dataset.
• adms:versionNotes: a description of the differences between this version and a previous version of the Dataset.

[dr-shorthair]

Version is a special case of #81 (Related datasets) also concerned with #76 (Provenance information)

[andrea-perego]

@makxdekkers wrote:

@andrea-perego I am not sure it is doable to look for ways that different communities are handling versions. There are a lot of communities that could be considered. In the end, I agree with what @dr-shorthair wrote back in October 2017 (https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-dxwg-wg/2017Oct/0017.html):
"the notion of 'version' is usually a publisher's choice to assign a memorable identifier to a product".
So it may depend on the type of product, the intentions of the publisher and the expectations of the consumer. There might not be much consensus even within a particular community.

I agree as well. My comment was actually more a hint to say that we should not define ourselves what a "version" is, but rather recognising that there are different practices.

[riccardoAlbertoni]

DCAT 2 says: "The notion of version is very much related to the community practices. For this reason, we refrain from providing definitions or rules about when changes in a resource should turn in a new release of it."

I am in favor of keeping this line, and if no one is objecting, I think we can close this issue.

[dr-shorthair]

replace 'turn in' by 'become' or 'turn into' in the last line.

[riccardoAlbertoni]

I'm closing this issue as DCAT 2 already registered a shared view, saying:
"The notion of version is very much related to the community practices. For this reason, we refrain from providing definitions or rules about when changes in a resource should turn into a new release of it."