Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen | solitude.dk

Metadata Hootenanny (via Adrian) is an application that lets you add metadata to Quicktime files easily. It looks really cool, but unfortunately it only works on a Mac. Does anyone know of a similar application for Windows? A Google search returns the piece I wrote on adding metadata in Quicktime Pro. I'm looking for a something a little easier than Quicktime Pro's interface. I'd rather have a lean application than a feature rich one (preferably something in the $15 range). The ideal solution would be Apple improving Quicktime Pro, but failing that I wouldn't mind paying a little bit for a small application that can manage metadata in Quicktime files.

Having thrown my proposal for a Meta Data Profile For Blogs up for comments, I'm looking for meta data I've missed. At the same time it's important for me to keep it as simple as possible — adding too many options for meta data in the profile would only ensure that it would never be used in it's entirety. So I'm putting two more types of meta data here for discussion, and not in the profile itself (yet).

via

Via is a link-type. It can be used to give credit to a website:

Thanks to <a href="http://momentshowing.net/" rel="via">Jay</a> I found out about ourmedia.org.

keywords, categories or tags

Keywords, categories or tags are all synonyms for the same thing. I haven't decided on which name I think is best. They all describe the same meta data property for the meta-element. It's a comma separated list of keywords that relate to the current document. This could be categories from your blogging software, and it would allow for Flickr-like tagging of blog entries. I'm considering the tags name because it signals a more laissez faire attitude towards the amount of keywords used.

I plan on implementing keywords/categories/tags on this weblog. I've been wanting to add categories for a while to solve archiving trouble (it really doesn't make a lot of sense to archive based on publishing date alone), and I might as well employ a meta-element since I am already using HTML files as my archives. Thanks to Peter and Ryan for mentioning tagging blog entries (in relation to Me-tv playlists).

I've written before on why guessing when including files as enclosures is bad, but I would like elaborate a bit. To paraphrase my previous entry guessing is bad because the wrong files will be tagged as enclosures which results in muddy data (and likely confusion). In addition having only the enclosures marked in the RSS feed ensures that it's only possible to extract the enclosures while the blog entries are present in the feed — thus you will loose this very important information after the entry is pushed off the end of the feed.

What annoys me the most is that the current practice of guessing limits me in what I can and cannot link to. I can't link directly to media files because Me-Tv and services like it will display the media file as the primary content, even if I only linked to the file in a side comment. For example I can't write:

Peter, Kenyatta, Josh, Jay and Mica were <a href="http://poorbuthappy.com/ease/video/metv.mov">hanging out</a>. It looked like they had a lot of fun talking about Me-Tv.

Likewise Feedster will add the media file as an enclosure and assume that I am the owner of said media file. Following that line of thought the guessing actually limits how audio/video and weblogs can interact instead of opening up new possibilities — audio/video is marked as something seperate from the weblog, not as a part of it.

That was my primary goal with writing the HTML Meta Profile For Blogs. It gives authors a way of tagging files that should be considered enclosures. The advatanges are multiple.

1. The information about which files are enclosures are saved permanently with the blog entry, not only temporarily in the feed.
2. There is no muddy data since only the files the author has marked as enclosures will be treated as such.
3. As a result you can link to any kind of file without having to worry about it being presented as the main content of your blog post.

Of course changes would still be needed in the user interface of blogging systems to make it easy for non-HTML savvy authors to mark files as enclosures.

It all began when the videobloggers started to go crazy due to RSS and content aggregation. Enclosures in RSS are great, but if the same information isn't saved directly in the HTML of the blog post it's also pretty useless. This is because quickly the item will get pushed off the feed and then you have lost your knowledge of what is enclosures and what are just normal links. Furthermore it's a problem because your feed contains way more valuable information than the blog post itself (the disadvantages should be obvious).

I proposed the use of the rel-attribute with values of alternate or enclosure back in October. I kept working along those lines because as I thought about it I realized that weblogs as a genre have more special link relations and metadata needs than just enclosures. Like permalinks, comments and ping/trackbacks.

The result is a proposal for a HTML Meta Profile For Blogs. It didn't take long to write the proposal — the time was spent on updating all my blog entries to follow this profile. As an example to show what can be done. You can see this on the monthly archive pages where I now include a list of citations and enclosures along with an excerpt of each entry. This is done by scanning each entry for instances of rel="enclosure" and rel="cite" (along with q and blockquote elements).

The advantages to using a profile like this are many. First off there is no need to change the underlying database of a blogging system because everything is stored in the HTML. That way only the blogging system UI has to be changed to enable enclosures. In the same way it can be used to optimize how trackbacks and pingbacks are handled (by only pinging rel="cite" links by default). Services like Technorati would also be able to automatically extract data from blogs in a much more precise manner. It would for example be able to know the difference between a blog front page and the permalinks.

That's where the real value is: Other services would be able to scan each blog for metadata without having to rely on guessing (this is inaccurate at best, harmful at worst). RSS is terrible for things like that, both due to the fact that it doesn't have the rich ways of describing content like HTML, and because RSS isn't archived.

I'd love to hear comments on this profile. Have I missed something? Would you implement it?

Lucas Gonze paraphrased an article that claims RSS is the sementic web by saying:

Paraphrasing, the beauty and magic of syndication is that objects are published as metadata rather than as presentation. RSS says: this thing is a title; HTML says: this thing is bold and in a bigger font.

Which of course shows that someone isn't using HTML correctly. When you compare RSS to HTML you'll see that HTML is a semantic superhero.

It's correct that in RSS you can see that something is a title. You can see a bit more than that actually. You can see stuff like:

• Title
• Author
• Publishing date

With HTML you have just a tiny bit more meaning in your markup:

• Title
• Author and publishing date through meta elements.
• All headings, including their hierarchy.
• All citations and quotes including references to the pages quoted.
• Acronyms and their definitions.
• References to other pages (links).
• And more…

HTML has RSS beaten into a bloody pulp when it comes to the semantic web. If you're using HTML to control presentation you're missing the power of it (ie. you're missing the concept of the semantics in the first place). RSS can't be used instead of HTML because it's semantic vocabulary can't handle much of anything. RSS syndicates websites, it can't replace them.

Update

I've updated my thoughts on enclosures by writing a HTML Meta Profile For Blogs. There are two related blog entries:

• Meta Profile For Blogs
• Why Guessing Is Bad

For a couple of minutes this entry was called “Wordpress Sucks”. That's not fair, so I decided to change the title. Wordpress is the most interesting blogging system out there right now. That's where the innovation is happening. I just don't think what they've done here is a good idea.

I really like Wordpress, but when I read how Wordpress is handling enclosures I was disappointed. Wordpress looks for any links to an mp3 file in each entry and adds those to the RSS feed as enclosures. That's not a good way to do things. What happens when I link to someone else's Podcast? Their Podcast will be added to my feed as a part of my blog entry. That's one broken feed.

RSS is a syndication format. It represents content which exists elsewhere. Thus any changes must happen on the HTML-level and not in the feed. The feed must not contain any content that the HTML is represents does not contain. That's why you break RSS when you mindless add enclosures that may or may not be a part of the blog entry.

In addition you would have to wait for updates in your blogging system every time you wanted to include a new type of file. Right now Wordpress looks for mp3 files, but what about Quicktime video files, Windows Media audio. What about photoblogs who might want to add their photos as enclosures? Hell, what about Excel spreadsheets? We need a general way of describing links, not a patch solution like the one Wordpress has made.

I propose that blogging systems and websites start using the following HTML notations to help determine whether the content behind a link is to be seen as an integral part of a HTML document or not. I'm using <a>-elements below, but the same applies to <link>-elements. Examples are at the bottom of this entry.

<a href="[URL]">Link</a>

This is a normal link describing a reference to the linked resource. The URL the link points to should not be added as an enclosure since links by definition point to another resource.

<a href="[URL]" rel="alternate">Link</a>

The rel="alternate" is a part of the HTML specification:

Alternate. Designates substitute versions for the document in which the link occurs. When used together with the lang attribute, it implies a translated version of the document. When used together with the media attribute, it implies a version designed for a different medium (or media).

This type of link (along with a type attribute) designates that the content of URL pointed to can be substituted for the content of the HTML document. Ie. the URL can be understood without the context of the HTML document where the link resides. The URL linked should be added to the RSS feed as an enclosure.

<a href="[URL]" rel="enclosure">Link</a>

This is a new type of relation. It designates that the URL pointed to should be seen as a part of the HTML document, but not as a substitute for the HTML document. It compliments it rather than substitutes it. The linked URL should be added to the RSS feed as an enclosure Hints about content-type can be given with the type attribute).

Of course changes to the UI of blogging systems must be made. It is only the author of a given document who can make the distinction between the three different links. There is no way software can make the correct guess. The blogging system should provide some way for the author of an entry to mark links as belonging to one of these three categories. When creating links while authoring an entry it would be ideal if the blogging system at the same time as embedding the HTML code gave the author a choice as to what kind of link he is making.

If you want to use a profile attribute to show that you are using the enclosure as described here it should point to http://www.solitude.dk/archives/20041026-1300/

Examples

The following three paragraphs should be seen as examples of (short) blog posts. They have been created as to show the difference between the three different kinds of links.

<p>I was listening to Dave's <a href="http://static.scripting.com/blogs/gems/davetravel/cnOct24a.mp3">new Podcast</a> the other day. He has some good points in it.</p>

<p><a rel="alternate" href="http://www.solitude.dk/archives/files/podcast.mp3">My lastest video.</a> A short tour of my university campus.</p>

<p>I've been working on a new design for this website. I'm having some issues getting it to look right in Browser X. <a rel="enclosure" href="http://www.solitude.dk/archives/files/screenshot.png">Here is how it looks in Browser X</a>. Any help would be much appreciated.</p>