Version delta [RVSDA]

[jpullmann]

Version delta [RVSDA]

Provide a way to indicate the change delta or other change information from the previous version.

Related requirements: Version definition [RVSDF] 
Related use cases: Dataset Versioning Information [ID4] Annotating changes that do not change the information content [ID50] 

[makxdekkers]

The European DCAT-AP uses adms:versionNotes for a textual "description of the differences between this version and a previous version of the Dataset".

[nicholascar]

What about a pointer to a Git transaction?

[davebrowning]

I quite like the idea of a Git transaction but not all new versions would naturally be picked up that way, I think. For those that do, then perhaps we should encourage it

An example where the textual approach works better would be where a publisher has changed coverage in some way, but the rest stays the same. [This is fairly common practice with financial data - I may have a dataset that claims to cover corporates across the EU for example but has systematic issues for the UK (for example). When I address those issues, I may want to treat it as a new version of the original dataset rather than a new dataset as a way of signalling to users that its an important change but still an evolution of what I produced before] This is all information domain specific, of course.

[makxdekkers]

@nicholascar Not sure I understand the idea. Are you saying that Datasets should be published on GitHub? I do not think that is common practice.
@davebrowning Your use case of versioning is interesting and should be part of a more thorough discussion on versioning. In your description, I do not entirely understand the distinction you make between a new version of the original dataset and a new dataset. After all, both the original dataset and the new version would be datasets (dcat:Dataset); the signal to the users would be expressed as links between the two datasets, further detailed by the version delta info.

[davebrowning]

@makxdekkers - yes, I agree it needs to be part of a broader/more thorough discussion on versioning (persummably under action #90 ). I also agree that these are both examples of dct:Dataset so could use some links as you describe, if that mechanism is available.

What the publisher is usually trying to achieve by calling the new set of published data a new version of a pre-existing set is to signall that its a successor or evolution of what was previously available, and perhaps in the publishers perspective essentially replaces it (eventually). It can also help with alignment with non-technical documentation like contracts of supply (though that usually gets confused anyway). I'll put together some coherant notes and we can discuss under #90.

The point I was trying to make here is that version delta info can cover a wide range of stuff, not all of it that would come from some easily referenceable process tool like github. [Assuming I've understood the suggestion, of course]