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<TITLE>Darwin Core Namespace Policy</TITLE>
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<META name="DC.description" content="This document is most recent version of the Darwin Core Namespace Policy"/>
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<META name="DC.subject" content="biodiversity, standards"/>
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<META name="DC.creator" content="Darwin Core Task Group"/>
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<META name="DC.contributor" content="John Wieczorek (MVZ) <tuco@berkeley.edu>"/>
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<META name="DC.contributor" content="Markus Döring (GBIF) <mdoering@gbif.org>"/>
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<META name="DC.contributor" content="Renato De Giovanni (CRIA) <renato@cria.org.br>"/>
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<META name="DC.contributor" content="Tim Robertson (GBIF) <trobertson@gbif.org>"/>
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<META name="DC.contributor" content="Dave Vieglais (KUNHM) <vieglais@ku.edu>"/>
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<META name="DC.contributor" content="Stan Blum (CAS) <sblum@calacademy.org>"/>
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<META name="DC.modified" content="2009-02-12"/>
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<TABLE width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" bgcolor="#617394">
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<TBODY><TR>
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<TD width="70"><A href="http://www.tdwg.org"><IMG src="../../DarwinCore_files/TDWGlogo_Twiki.gif" width="150" height="70" alt="Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) logo"></A></TD>
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<TD width="100%" height="70" align="right" valign="top">
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</TABLE>
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<H1>Darwin Core Namespace Policy</H1>
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<TABLE cellspacing="0" class="docinfo">
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<TBODY>
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<TR>
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<TH>Title:</TH>
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<TD>Darwin Core Namespace Policy</TD>
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</TR>
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<TR>
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<TH>Date Issued:</TH>
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<TD>2009-02-12</TD>
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</TR>
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<TR>
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<TH>Abstract:</TH>
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<TD>
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All terms in the Darwin Core must be assigned a unique URI. For convenience, the term URIs that are
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assigned and managed by the Darwin Core Task Group are grouped into collections known as Darwin
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Core namespaces. This document describes how term URIs are allocated by the Darwin Core Task Group
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and the policies associated with Darwin Core namespaces.
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</TD>
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</TR>
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<TR>
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<TH>Contributors:</TH>
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<TD>John Wieczorek (MVZ)<tuco@berkeley.edu>, Markus Döring (GBIF)<mdoering@gbif.org>, Renato De Giovanni (CRIA)<renato@cria.org.br>, Tim Robertson (GBIF)<trobertson@gbif.org>, Dave Vieglais (KUNHM)<vieglais@ku.edu>, Stan Blum (CAS)<sblum@calacademy.org></TD>
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</TR>
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<TR>
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<TH>Legal:</TH>
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<TD>This document is governed by the standard legal, copyright, licensing provisions and disclaimers issued by the Taxonomic Databases Working Group.</TD>
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</TR>
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<TR>
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<TH>Part of TDWG Standard:</TH>
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<TD>***URL to DwC Standard*** goes here</TD>
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</TR>
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<TR>
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<TH>Creator:</TH>
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<TD>Darwin Core Task Group</TD>
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</TR>
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<TR>
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<TH>Identifier:</TH>
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<TD><A href="http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/namespace/2009-02-12/">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/namespace/2009-02-12/</A></TD>
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</TR>
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<TR><TH>Latest Version:</TH>
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<TD><A href="http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/namespace/">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/namespace/</A></TD>
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</TR>
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<TR>
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<TH>Replaces:</TH>
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<TD>Not applicable</TD>
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</TR>
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<TR><TH>Replaced By:</TH>
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<TD>Not applicable</TD>
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</TR>
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<TR>
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<TH>Translations:</TH>
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<TD><A href="http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/translations/">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/translations/</A></TD>
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</TR>
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<TR>
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<TH>Document Status:</TH>
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<TD>This is a TDWG Request for Comment.</TD>
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</TR>
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</TBODY></TABLE>
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<H2>Table of Contents</H2>
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</P><TABLE width="95%" border="0" align="center"><TBODY>
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<TR><TD width="100%">1. <a href="glossary">Glossary</a>
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</TD></TR>
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<TR><TD width="100%">2. <a href="#introduction">Introduction</a>
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</TD></TR>
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<TR><TD width="100%">3. <a href="#references">References</a>
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</TD></TR>
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<TR><TD width="100%">4. <a href="#namespaceuris">Darwin Core Namespace URIs</a>
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</TD></TR>
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<TR><TD width="100%">5. <a href="#classesofchanges">Policy concerning classes of changes to Darwin Core terms</a>
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</TD></TR>
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<TR><TD width="100%">6. <a href="#persistence">Persistence Policy</a>
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</TD></TR>
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</TBODY></TABLE
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<A name="glossary" id="glossary"></A>
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<H2>1. Glossary</H2>
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<P>This document uses the following terminology:</P>
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<DL>
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<DT><EM>term</EM></DT>
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<DD>A property (element), class, vocabulary encoding scheme, or syntax encoding scheme.</DD>
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<DT><EM>URI</EM></DT>
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<DD>A Uniform Resource Identifier (<A href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3986.txt">URI</A>) or Internationalized Resource Identifier (<A href="<A href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3987.txt">IRI</A>).</DD>
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<DT><EM>Darwin Core term</EM></DT>
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<DD>A <EM>term</EM> that is declared and maintained by Darwin Core Task Group.</DD>
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<DT><EM>term URI</EM></DT>
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<DD>The <EM>URI</EM> that identifies a <EM>term</EM>.</DD>
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<DT><EM>Darwin Core term URI</EM></DT>
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<DD>The <EM>URI</EM> for a <EM>term</EM> that is declared and managed by Darwin Core Task Group.</DD>
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<DT><EM>term name</EM></DT>
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<DD>A unique token assigned to a <EM>term</EM>. For all <EM>Darwin Core terms</EM>, the <EM>term name</EM> is appended to a <EM>Darwin Core namespace URI</EM> to create the <EM>Darwin Core term URI</EM>.</DD>
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<DT><EM>term label</EM></DT>
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<DD>A human-readable label assigned to a <EM>term</EM>.</DD>
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<DT><EM>Darwin Core namespace</EM></DT>
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<DD>A collection of <EM>Darwin Core term URIs</EM> where each <EM>term</EM> is assigned a <EM>URI</EM> that starts with the same 'base URI'. The 'base URI' is known as the <EM>Darwin Core namespace URI</EM>. (Note that a <EM>Darwin Core namespace</EM> is not the same as an 'XML namespace').</DD>
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<DT><EM>Darwin Core namespace URI</EM></DT>
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<DD>The <EM>URI</EM> that identifies a <EM>Darwin Core namespace</EM>.</DD>
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<DT><EM>Darwin Core recommendation</EM></DT>
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<DD>A specification, approved through Darwin Core's formal process, which may define one or more <EM>Darwin Core terms</EM>.</DD>
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<DT><EM>Darwin Core term declaration</EM></DT>
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<DD>A representation of one or more <EM>Darwin Core terms</EM>.</DD>
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</DL>
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<P><EM>Term URIs</EM> are grouped into <EM>Darwin Core namespaces</EM> in order to ease the assignment of <EM>URIs </EM>to <EM>terms</EM> and to streamline their use in particular encoding syntaxes. Note that the grouping of <EM>term URIs</EM> into <EM>Darwin Core namespaces</EM> is orthogonal to the grouping of <EM>terms</EM> into sets designed to meet other functional needs, e.g., as various types of vocabularies.</P>
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<A name="introduction" id="introduction"></A>
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<H2>2. Introduction</H2>
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This document and the policies contained herein are modeled on the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
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Namespace Policy [<a href="http://dublincore.org/documents/2007/07/02/dcmi-namespace/">DCMINAMESPACEPOLICY</a>].
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All terms in the Darwin Core must be assigned a unique URI. For convenience, the term URIs that are
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assigned and managed by the Darwin Core Task Group are grouped into collections known as Darwin
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Core namespaces. This document describes how term URIs are allocated by the Darwin Core Task Group
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and the policies associated with Darwin Core namespaces.
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<A name="references" id="references"></A>
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<H2>3. References</H2>
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<TABLE width="95%" border="0" align="center">
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<TR>
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<TD width="10%"><A name="DCMINAMESPACEPOLICY">[DCMINAMESPACEPOLICY]</A></TD>
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<TD width="40%"><A href="http://dublincore.org/documents/2007/07/02/dcmi-namespace/">http://dublincore.org/documents/2007/07/02/dcmi-namespace/</A></TD>
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<TD width="50%">DCMI Namespace Policy, 2 July 2007</TD>
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</TR>
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<TR>
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<TD width="10%"><A name="DWC">[DWC]</A></TD>
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<TD width="40%"><A href="../../index.htm">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/</A></TD>
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<TD width="50%">An introduction to the Darwin Core Standard.</TD>
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</TR>
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<TR>
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<TD width="10%"><A name="DWC-MAIL">[DWC-MAIL]</A></TD>
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<TD width="40%"><A href="mailto:tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org">tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org</A></TD>
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<TD width="50%">Mailing list for commentary and discussion on Darwin Core.</TD>
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</TR>
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<TR>
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<TD width="10%"><A name="DWC-USAGE">[DWC-USAGE]</A></TD>
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<TD width="40%"><A href="mailto:tdwg-tag@lists.tdwg.org">tdwg-tag@lists.tdwg.org</A></TD>
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<TD width="50%">TDWG Architecture Mailing List.</TD>
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</TR>
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<TR>
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<TD width="10%"><A name="DWC-TYPE">[DWC-TYPE]</A></TD>
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<TD width="40%"><A href="../type-vocabulary/index.htm">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/type-vocabulary/</A></TD>
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<TD width="50%">Darwin Core Type Vocabulary.</TD>
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</TR>
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<TR>
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<TD width="10%"><A name="DECISIONS">[DECISIONS]</A></TD>
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<TD width="40%"><A href="../history/decisions/index.htm">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/history/decisions/</A></TD>
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<TD width="50%">A history of decisions resulting in changes to Darwin Core terms.</TD>
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</TR>
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<TR>
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<TD width="10%"><A name="HISTORY">[HISTORY]</A></TD>
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<TD width="40%"><A href="../history/index.htm">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/history/</A></TD>
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<TD width="50%">Darwin Core Terms: A complete history.</TD>
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</TR>
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</TBODY></TABLE>
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<A name="namespaceuris" id="namespaceuris"></A>
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<H2>4. Darwin Core Namespace URIs</H2>
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<P>The <EM>Darwin Core namespace URI</EM> for the collection of all Darwin Core properties, classes and encoding schemes is:</P>
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<PRE class="example">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/
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</PRE>
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<P>The <EM>Darwin Core namespace URI</EM> for the collection of <EM>classes</EM> in the Darwin Core Type Vocabulary
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[<A href="../type-vocabulary/index.htm">DWC-TYPE</A>] is:</P>
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<PRE class="example">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/dwctype/
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</PRE>
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<P>All future <EM>Darwin Core namespace URIs</EM> (additional Darwin Core controlled vocabularies for example) will conform to
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this pattern:</P>
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<PRE class="example">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/namespace_label/
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</PRE>
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<P>All <EM>Darwin Core namespace URIs</EM> will dereference to a <EM>Darwin Core term declaration</EM> for all the
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<EM>terms</EM> with <EM>term URIs</EM> within that <EM>Darwin Core namespace</EM>. A machine-processable <EM>Darwin Core
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term declaration</EM> will be made available.</P>
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<P>Some example <EM>Darwin Core term URIs</EM> follow:</P>
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<PRE class="example">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/ScientificName
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</PRE>
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<P>is the <EM>Darwin Core term URI</EM> for the ScientificName <EM>property</EM>.</P>
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<PRE class="example">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/dwctype/PreservedSpecimen
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</PRE>
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<P>is the <EM>Darwin Core term URI</EM> for the PreservedSpecimen <EM>class</EM> in the Darwin Core Type Vocabulary.</P>
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<P>Each <EM>Darwin Core term</EM> can be so identified.</P>
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<P>All <EM>Darwin Core term URIs</EM> will dereference to a <EM>Darwin Core term declaration</EM> for the identified
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<EM>term</EM>. A machine-processable <EM>Darwin Core term declaration</EM> will be made available.
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<A name="classesofchanges" id="classesofchanges"></A>
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<H2>5. Policy concerning classes of changes to Darwin Core terms</H2>
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<P>Changes to <EM>Darwin Core terms</EM> or <EM>term declarations</EM> will occur from time to time for a variety of reasons.
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Such changes have varying implications for <EM>Darwin Core term URIs</EM> and <EM>Darwin Core namespaces</EM>. The following
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classes of changes are identified along with examples and associated implications.
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<P>In all cases, any changes to <EM>Darwin Core terms</EM> or <EM>term declarations</EM> will result
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in an update to the versioning information carried in the <EM>Darwin Core recommendation</EM> and/or
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<EM>Darwin Core term declaration</EM> associated with that <EM>term</EM>. Specifically, a new version
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of the term will be created with appropriate information in the <i>Version</i>, <i>Replaces</i>, and
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<i>DateModified</i> attributes of the new term, and with the identifying version information of the
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new term in the <i>Is Replaced By</i> attribute of the term being updated.
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<H3>5.1. Minor editorial errata</H3>
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<P>Errors of spelling, punctuation, or other clerical mistakes discovered in <EM>Darwin Core recommendations</EM> and/or
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<EM>Darwin Core term declarations</EM> will be corrected without a comment period, following notification to the TDWG
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Architecture Group [<A href="mailto:tdwg-tag@lists.tdwg.org">DWC-USAGE</A>], as long as, in
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the judgment of the TDWG Architecture Group, there are no implications for negative impact on users or applications that rely
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on those <EM>Darwin Core term declarations</EM>. Minor editorial changes of this type will result in no changes to <EM>Darwin
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Core term URIs</EM>, will not undergo a request for comments, and will not result in a decision
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[<a href="../history/decisions/index.htm">DECISIONS</A>].
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<H3>5.2. Substantive editorial errata</H3>
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<P>Errors of substance discovered in <EM>Darwin Core recommendations</EM> and/or <EM>Darwin Core
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term declarations</EM> will trigger public notification of the correction to the Darwin Core mailing
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list [<A href="mailto:tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org">DWC-MAIL</A>].
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Errors that, in the judgment of the TDWG Architecture Group, compromise the immediate usefulness or
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accuracy of systems based on Darwin Core will be corrected immediately (for example, an incorrect
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URL to a resource external to Darwin Core). Others will be corrected following a 30-day public
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comment period to assure that changes do not adversely effect systems or applications which rely on
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the <EM>Darwin Core namespace</EM> infrastructure. Substantive editorial changes of this type will
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result in no changes to <EM>Darwin Core term URIs</EM>, and will not result in a decision
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[<a href="../history/decisions/index.htm">DECISIONS</A>].
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<H3>5.3. Semantic changes in Darwin Core terms</H3>
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<P>Changes of definitions within <EM>Darwin Core recommendations</EM> and/or <EM>Darwin Core term
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declarations</EM> will be reflected in the affected <EM>Darwin Core recommendation</EM> and/or
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<EM>Darwin Core term declaration</EM>. Semantic changes of this type will, will
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undergo a request for comments, and will result in a decision
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[<a href="../history/decisions/index.htm">DECISIONS</A>]. If, in the judgment of the TDWG Architecture Group, such
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changes of meaning are likely to have substantial impact on either machine processing of
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<EM>Darwin Core terms</EM> or the functional semantics of the <EM>terms</EM>, then these changes
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will be reflected in a change of URI for the <EM>Darwin Core term</EM> or <EM>terms</EM> in question.
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The URIs for any new <EM>Darwin Core namespaces</EM> resulting from such changes will conform to
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the <EM>Darwin Core namespace URI</EM> pattern defined above.
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<P>Requests for semantic changes to a term should be made to the Technical Architecture Group
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[<A href="mailto:tdwg-tag@lists.tdwg.org">DWC-USAGE</A>], and should consist of a complete list of attributes to be changed
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along with a statement of justification for the changes.
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<H3>5.4. Addition of Darwin Core term declarations to existing Darwin Core namespaces</H3>
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<P>New <EM>Darwin Core term URIs</EM> will occasionally be added to existing <EM>Darwin Core namespaces</EM> based on
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public demand. Addition of <EM>Darwin Core term URIs</EM> to existing <EM>Darwin Core namespaces</EM> will not trigger
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changes in <EM>Darwin Core namespace URIs</EM>. Additional term requests that are determined by the Technical Architecture
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Group to have merit will undergo a request for comments and will not result in a decision
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[<a href="../history/decisions/index.htm">DECISIONS</A>].
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<P>Requests for additional terms should be made to the Technical Architecture Group
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[<A href="mailto:tdwg-tag@lists.tdwg.org">DWC-USAGE</A>], and should consist of a complete list of
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attributes as given in the introduction in the Darwin Core Terms history [<A href="../history/index.htm">HISTORY</A>] along
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with a statement of justification for the new term, including an explanation of why no existing term will suffice.
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<A name="persistence" id="persistence"></A>
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<H2>6. Persistence Policy</H2>
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<P>
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TDWG recognizes that people and applications depend on the persistence of formal documents and machine processable schemas
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that have been made publicly available. In particular, the stability of <EM>Darwin Core term URIs</EM> and <EM>Darwin Core
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namespace URIs</EM> is critical to interoperability over time. Thus, the wide promulgation of this set of <EM>URIs</EM>
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dictates that they be maintained to support legacy applications that have adopted them.</P>
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