[Odrl-version2] Microdata and RDFa HTML4/5 specs

[Steven Rowat]

Helge Hundacker wrote:

> RDFa seems to be a
> little bit more complex, but has a little bit more possibilities. I
> think learning Microdata will be very easy for someone who already
> knows RDFa. RDFa has the advantage, that it can be converted very
> easily to normal RDF (or rather is already RDF), which can be used
> for other usecases which will not deal with web pages and HTML. But
> also, Microdata will presumably be easily converted to RDF or other
> notations.

Thank you very much Helge; that's exactly the kind of opinion that is 
helpful to me to know whether to worry overly about the Microdata/RDFa 
discussion.

Anyone else who'll hazard an opinion on this, feel free.

Related and perhaps even more important, I've been reading in the w3c 
working group and public-html archives, and it's clear there's not 
only no consensus on the Microdata/RDFa choice, but there is 
substantial lack of consensus on the process of editorial choice being 
used in the HTML5 working group. This is troubling, because it toys 
with the relationship that the rest of us have to trusting the W3c 
process; as this excerpt from a recent post by Ben Adida about the 
HTML5 draft just published makes clear:

 > I think if you ask web developers, they will assume that the content of
 > a published working draft represents a pretty good snapshot in time of
 > current consensus within the working group, unless an area of the text
 > is specifically called out as being experimental and not having
 > consensus. Certainly, that is how other W3C specs are interpreted.
 > That's why I think publishing only Ian's draft is a mistake.

That post is at:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2009Aug/0120.html

  In other words, the Microdata spec is not by any stretch of the 
imagination a consensus result of the HTML5 working group, and the 
traditional way would have been to hold back publication until such 
consensus had been reached. The fact that this happened without 
warning the public at large of this difference leads me to feel 
concerned that the HTML5 process itself needs primary attention; not 
the presenting problem (Microdata/RDFa hangup), which may only be 
solved after the underlying process is healthy again.

Steven R.