[uf-discuss] Comments from IBM/Lotus rep about Microformats

Tue Dec 12 14:09:08 PST 2006

On Dec 12, 2006, at 1:38 PM, Joe Andrieu wrote:
> brian suda wrote
>> It is possible for me to start creating a CSS style called
>> 'vcard', but a parser would know that this is a style and not
>> semantics because of the lack of a profile URI. Eventually,
>> as microformats become more popular, the profile URI is used
>> to disambiguate random styles with intended semantic values.
>> Brian,
>> As I understand it profile URIs are not required.
>> If so, the parser cannot distinguish between wild semantic HTML and an
> hCard.

Profile URIs are not required for publishers, but parsers are free to 
ignore HTML without profile URIs, and I think it's reasonable to 
expect them to start doing that if name conflict becomes more than a 
hypothetical problem. This mirrors how natural language works. 
Until there is some need for clarification, we assume everyone knows 
what we mean. Then there is a need for clarification, we clarify. 
No one goes around defining every word before they use it, and I 
don't think we can expect publishers to behave differently with HTML 
symbols. We could require profile URIs, but that won't make anyone 
use them. OI think only a practical need for disambiguation will do 
that.
Peace,
Scott