CPAN Metadata

Hello all,

Well, after a fun meeting and managing to convince you all it's about
metadata, I've actually gotten around to playing with some.

I present CPAN::Metadata::RDF.
http://search.cpan.org/dist/CPAN-Metadata-RDF/

This generates metadata about CPAN (well, actually all of BACKPAN -
seeing as we want to push it more we may as well include it) in RDF
format. RDF was chosen as the schema is very strict, and we want
programs to be able to infer things from this, not to have to guess
about meaning.

Earle Martin has been helping me with the RDF stuff:
http://downlode.org/rdf/cpan/0.1

Anyway, here is an example RDF fragment. Don't be scared by the
XML. This is using RDF/XML which is possibly the worst mistake W3C
have ever made. I'm going to move to NTriples for the next version
(http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/RDFCore/ntriples/) as this is really
annoying me.

[Yes, we can also produce YAML versions for people who don't care
about schemas. Oh and databases or whatever. It's not about the
format]

Anyway, here's the fragment:

<rdf:Description rdf:about="http://search.cpan.org/dist/CPAN-Metadata-RDF-1.00/">
    <cpan:dist>CPAN-Metadata-RDF</cpan:dist>
    <cpan:dist_md5>43eb585c94e70270c1fbfd14ab8451b6</cpan:dist_md5>
    <cpan:dist_version>CPAN-Metadata-RDF-1.00</cpan:dist_version>
    <cpan:file_size>3900</cpan:file_size>
    <cpan:mimetype>application/x-gzip</cpan:mimetype>
    <cpan:mirrored>1</cpan:mirrored>
    <cpan:pause_id>LBROCARD</cpan:pause_id>
    <cpan:release_status>public</cpan:release_status>
    <cpan:suffix>authors/id/L/LB/LBROCARD/CPAN-Metadata-RDF-1.00.tar.gz</cpan:su
    <cpan:version>1</cpan:version>
    <dc:date>2003-10-12T20:17:08</dc:date>
    <dc:format>application/x-gzip</dc:format>
    <dc:identifier rdf:resource="http://search.cpan.org/dist/CPAN-Metadata-RDF-1
    <dc:publisher rdf:resource="http://www.cpan.org/"/>
    <dc:type rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Software"/>
.00/"/>
</rdf:Description>

Thanks to Autrijus, the last version of this is available via 
http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/L/LB/LBROCARD/cpan.rdf.gz

Some of the metadata isn't necessary any more, now that Graham has
released http://search.cpan.org/dist/CPAN-DistnameInfo/ However, I'm a
big fan of more metadata at the start. We can always cut back
eventually. I plan on rolling in some CPANTS information once Thomas
has released the new version (nudge, nudge) and some PAUSE information
in FOAF format (basic stuff first, more when we get access to it).
http://www.foaf-project.org/

So, what metadata do you guys want?

Leon
-- 
Leon Brocard.............................http://www.astray.com/
scribot.................................http://www.scribot.com/

... Wayne Campbell: Exsqueeze me? A baking-powder?