[meteorite-list] MADML RFC (was "Data in auctions")

From: Charles Viau <cviau_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:37 2004
Message-ID: <011801c39faf$559335f0$1800a8c0_at_chupa>

Jamie,
        If I could make a suggestion, use XML instead. It is
specifically designed to describe the metadata you need and capture the
data as well. It is also much more portable to other tools such as
spreadsheets, databases and browser scripts that display tables. Just a
thought...

CharlyV

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-admin_at_meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-admin_at_meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Roman
Nakonechny
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 2:19 AM
To: j.stephens_at_morphism.com
Cc: meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] MADML RFC (was "Data in auctions")

You are a MADMAN old sport, but the more DATA the better to make a
somewhat
educated decission on whether to pay or not to pay for a piece of (it's
tempting to write it here, no?), but not that . I was going to say piece
of
celestial rarity, a meteorite, dear boy. The information overload you've

just dropped on us is refreshing to say the least. It's just what I
need
right now at 2:00AM. And yes you are a fascinating GEEK- but loved on
this
list just the same. Send more data . The knowledge contained in the
unreachable password protected zipped files of your mind will feed us
for
many a year. >JAMIE'S THE MAN<(-:{
Roman~~~~~~~~~~~~~* (IMCA# 0583) Thanks Jamie dude


>From: Jamie Stephens <j.stephens_at_morphism.com>
>To: Meteorite List <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
>Subject: [meteorite-list] MADML RFC (was "Data in auctions")
>Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 22:42:02 -0600
>
>For posterity, here's the first (and almost certainly the last)
>
> Request For Comments
> for the
>
> Meteorite Auction Data Markup Language (MADML) version 1.0
>
>** If you're a big seller and you think you'll never provide this **
>** structured data, please let me know. I don't want to waste my **
>** time or others'. No hard feelings (from me) at all. **
>
>** If you want to flame me, please be creative. Privacy-invader, **
>** user-agreement-abuser, never-seen-the-light-of-day geek, and **
>** irresponsible loser are old. I'm a white male. Got to be **
>** something there. **
>
>Please send suggestions and comments to me directly. (Apparently the
>List can't take much more Jamie-inspired traffic. I'm sympathetic to
>the List in this regard.) I'll revise and republish if I have the
>guts.
>
>The goal of MADML is to provide a *simple* way to provide pertinent
>auction data in a standard format that's easily parsed. With MADML,
>it'll be easy to track fine-grained stats over time:
>
> $/g ranges for Howardites
> $/g ranges for NWA 998
> $/g ranges for unclassified NWA
> Number of bidders on Gibeon slices
> Number of winners of Eucrites
>
>Etc. (Note that $/g will be ranges, not single numbers.) All could
>be easily graphed over time.
>
>N.B. No EBay ID's!
>
>Since EBay auction titles must be short and since sellers will likely
>want to maintain complete control over those titles, MADML goes into
>the item description, not the title.
>
>Approach 1: An HTML table:
>
> <!-- MADML 1.0 -->
> <table border=1>
> <tr><td align=right>Name:</td><td>Dar al Gani 607</td></tr>
> <tr><td align=right>Mass:</td><td>2.75g</td></tr>
> <tr><td align=right>Cut:</td><td>Partslice</td></tr>
> <tr><td align=right>Classification:</td><td>EUC</td></tr>
> <tr><td align=right>Shock stage:</td><td>1</td></tr>
> <tr><td align=right>Weathering:</td><td>1</td></tr>
> </table>
>
> All bidders could easily see the data. Sellers could wrap whatever
> HTML they wanted around the table (including *hiding* the entire
> table in an HTML comment).
>
>Approach 2: An HTML comment:
>
> <!-- MADML v="1.0" name="Dal al Gani 609" classification="EUC"
> shock="1" weathering="1" mass="2.75g" cut="partslice" -->
>
> The data would be invisible to bidders. (You can see raw HTML by
> using your browser's "View Source" function (available in my browser
> in several places: e.g., from the menu you get by right-clicking on
> a blank spot on a page).) The rationale for this HTML comment
> approach is to avoid messing with any visual aspects of an item
> description.
>
>Approach 3: A text line:
>
> MADML [ name="Dar al Gani" mass="2.75g" ... ]
>
> A simple, consise, inelegant visible presentation. Not pretty.
>
>Approach 4: Approach 1 wrapped in an HTML comment
>
> The benefit is easy switching from visible to invisible data. Just
> remove or add the HTML comment syntax:
>
> <!-- Nothing will show up, but the data is still there.
> <!-- MADML 1.0 -->
> <table border=1>
> <tr><td align=right>Name:</td><td>Dar al Gani 607</td></tr>
> ...
> <tr><td align=right>Weathering:</td><td>1</td></tr>
> </table>
> -->
>
>Which approach do you prefer?
>
>No matter what format, we (!) want several fields:
>
> name: Required.
> Either
> 1) the unabbreviated name from the Met Bulletin or
> 2) unabbreviated, unofficial, pre-Bulletin name.
> Examples: "Northwest Africa 1694" "Bensour"
>
> mass: Required.
> The mass of the specimen offered in grams.
> Examples: "2.75g" "2345g" "0.003g"
>
> cut: Required.
> One of "Individual" or "Partslice" or "Fullslice" or "Fragement"
or
> "Endcut" or "Specks" or "Speck" or "Dust" or "Vapor".
>
> classification: Optional (suggested).
> The standard (?) abbreviated classification or "unclassified".
> See 'http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/9278/systemat.htm'.
> For achondrites, use the first three letters.
> All caps.
> Include petrologic type.
> Examples: "H5" "L3.8" "EUC" "HOW" "CV3" "H3-6" "H/L3" "CV3R"
> "IAB" "H IMB" "C-UNGROUPED" "MES" "PAL"
>
> shock: Optional (suggested). 1-6
>
> weathering: Optional (suggested). 0-6
>
>Comments:
>
>Readers can use online sources to look up classification data from
>names, so it's not essential to replicate that data here. However,
>it'd be much easier to have it here.
>
>Other standard data (e.g., fall/find, year, location, etc.) is
>probably best left to external sources. Feel free to provide it:
>
> find="yes"
> year="1917"
> location="Los Angeles, California, USA"
>
>Comments, please. Flames expected (from people with lives,
>presumably and ironically).
>
>BTW, I'm looking into getting a life. First I'm going to read about
>it on the Internet.
>
>--Jamie
>
>
>
>
>______________________________________________
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Received on Fri 31 Oct 2003 08:03:04 AM PST