Attributes in Action
By determining what belongs and doesn’t belong to the set of things we are describing, by selecting
certain attributes and not others, and by defining values in one way and not in another way, we enact an
interpretation of the described items.
Let’s take a fun example: online dating profiles. Here, people describe themselves in order to find their
potential dream dates. So we have an audience: people lookin’ for love, and a purpose: to find a match.
The schemas used by online dating sites differ, but they tend to include a number of attibutes in the area
of physical appearance. They don’t, however, ask potential daters to input their height and weight.
Instead, they define a Body Type attribute with a controlled vocabulary of values, like these examples:
(from OK Cupid)
(from Match)
(from Dharma Match)
What does it mean to describe body types this way, as opposed to another way (say by height and weight,
or with another set of terms)?
Here are some other dating attributes. (The boxes mean that you can select more than one value, and the
circles mean that you can only select one value. You can also only select one value from a menu.)
from Match.com
from Dharma Match
from OK Cupid
What if we merged all the online dating profiles that exist in different services all over the Internet and
use the same attributes and values? For example, we would agree to use a single set of values for the
Religion attribute, say those of Match.com. Would we have achieved interoperability of dating profiles?
What would be the advantages and disadvantages of this move?
Variability within standard systems
Note variations in these (condensed) library catalog records:
Example 1: Karl Marx, Capital
Record 1
AUTHOR
Marx, Karl, 1818-1883.
TITLE
Das Kapital : a critique of political economy / Karl Marx ;
edited by Frederich Engels ; condensed by Serge L. Levitsky.
PUB INFO Washington, DC : Regnery Gateway ; Lanham, MD : Distributed by
National Book Network, [1996]
SUBJECT
Economics -- History -- 19th century.
SUBJECT
Marxian economics.
Record 2
AUTHOR
Marx, Karl, 1818-1883.
TITLE
Das Kapital; a critique of political economy. Edited by Friedrich
Engels, condensed for modern readers by Serge L. Levitsky.
PUB INFO Chicago, H. Regnery [1965]
SERIES
Gateway edition ; 6056.
SUBJECT
Capital.
SUBJECT
Economics.
SUBJECT
Socialism.
Record 3
AUTHOR
Marx, Karl, 1818-1883.
TITLE
Kapital. English.
TITLE
Capital : a critique of political economy / Karl Marx ;
introduced by Ernest Mandel ; translated by Ben Fowkes.
SUBJECT
Capital.
SUBJECT
Economics.
Example 2: Karl Marx, Communist Manifesto
Record 1
AUTHOR
Marx, Karl, 1818-1883.
TITLE
The Communist manifesto / Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Principles of communism / Friedrich Engels ; translation by
Paul M. Sweezy. The Communist manifesto 150 years later /
Ellen Meiksins Wood.
PUB INFO New York : Monthly Review Press, c1998.
SUBJECT
Communism.
ADD TITLE Principles of communism.
ADD TITLE Communist Manifesto 150 years later.
Record 2
AUTHOR
Marx, Karl, 1818-1883.
TITLE
The Communist manifesto of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Edited, with an introd., explanatory notes and appendices by D.
Ryazanoff [pseud.]
PUB INFO New York, Russell & Russell, 1963.
NOTE
"Text of the Manifesto is a new translation from the German, made
in 1928 for Martin Lawrence. The rest of the work is
translated from the revised (1922) edition of Ryazanoff's The
Communist Manifesto (in Russian). Translations by Eden and
Cedar Paul."
SUBJECT
Socialism.
Record 3
AUTHOR
Marx, Karl, 1818-1883.
TITLE
Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei. English.
TITLE
Manifesto of the Communist Party [by] Karl Marx [and] Frederick
Engels.
PUB INFO Moscow, Progress Publishers [1969]
NOTE
Translation of Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei.
SUBJECT
Communism.
SUBJECT
Communism -- Germany.
Record 4
AUTHOR
Marx, Karl, 1818-1883.
TITLE
Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei. English.
TITLE
Manifesto of the Communist party / by Karl Marx and Frederick
Engels ; authorized English translation, edited and annotated
by Frederick Engels.
PUB INFO Chicago : Charles H. Kerr & company, [191-?]
NOTE
Translation of: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei.
NOTE
"The present translation is by Mr. Samuel Moore"--Pref., p. 10.
SUBJECT
Socialism.
SUBJECT
Communism.
ADD TITLE Communist manifesto.
Record 5
AUTHOR
Marx, Karl, 1818-1883.
TITLE
Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei. English.
TITLE
The Communist manifesto / Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels ; with an
introduction by A J P Taylor.
PUB INFO Harmondsworth, Eng. : Penguin Books, 1985.
NOTE
Translation of: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei. Translation
by Samuel Moore.
SUBJECT
Communism.
SUBJECT
Communism -- Germany.
SUBJECT
Socialism.
Record 6
AUTHOR
Marx, Karl, 1818-1883.
TITLE
Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei. English.
TITLE
The Communist manifesto : a modern edition / Karl Marx and
Frederick Engels ; with an introduction by Eric Hobsbawm.
PUB INFO London ; New York : Verso, 1998.
SUBJECT
Communism.
ADD AUTHOR Engels, Friedrich, 1820-1895.
ADD AUTHOR Hobsbawm, E. J. (Eric J.), 1917ADD TITLE Workers have nothing to lose but their chains.
Example 3: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Record 1
Author Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896.
Uniform title
Uncle Tom's cabin
Title
Uncle Tom's cabin : or, Life among the lowly / by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Added title
Life among the lowly
Imprint Boston : James R. Osgood, 1851.
Subject Slavery -- United States -- Fiction.
Record 2
Author Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896.
Title
The annotated Uncle Tom's cabin / Harriet Beecher Stowe ; edited with an introduction and notes by Henry
Louis Gates, Jr. and Hollis Robbins ; photos selected by Karen C. C. Dalton and Noam Biale.
Imprint New York : W. W. Norton & Co., c2007.
Subject Uncle Tom (Fictitious character) -- Fiction.
Master and servant -- Fiction.
African Americans -- Fiction.
Fugitive slaves -- Fiction.
Plantation life -- Fiction.
Southern States -- Fiction.
Slavery -- Fiction.
Slaves -- Fiction.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896. Uncle Tom's cabin.
Genre Political fiction.
Didactic fiction.
Political fiction.