Versioning

Versioning for Vocabularies

At this point it seems relevant to gather information about the issue:

• Email from Alistair Miles on the SKOS list discussing versioning for concepts

• I've requested information from Rebecca Guenther and Eric Childress about the administrative information around the LC vocabularies and DDC (respectively) that might help us manage terms in our vocabularies.

• Some beginnings of consensus:

• URIs should be stable so long as the semantics of the term/concept do not change
• Non-semantic changes might be:
  1. Additions of broader, narrower or related terms
  2. Changes in definition for clarification, correction of typos or grammar, etc.
  3. Addition of definition or scope note when none is present
  4. Change in term status
  5. Addition of other information (references, etc.)
• Semantic changes, requiring a change in URI, might include:
  1. Term splitting or consolidation
  2. Semantic changes in definition
  3. [Possibly] changes in hierarchical relationships (only when there's no definition and the hierarchy placement is the only semantic clue?) [Not sure how we would enforce this]