DCAT-AP: How to describe contact information? Switch to the latest release

Published on: 30/03/2016 Last update: 08/11/2017

How to describe contact information?

Issue

Implementers have noted that DCAT-AP lacks detail for the descriptive elements to be used with the class vcard:Kind, the range of dcat:contactPoint. It currently does not specify any recommended properties, which means that applications do not know beforehand which properties may be encountered.

Current situation

Current implementations all include name and e-mail address where information requests can be addressed. Several implementations also include telephone number and URL.

In most cases, the information provided is for the organisation that is responsible for answering questions, and only in some cases it is for the specific department that will take care of requests. Some data providers use e-mail addresses that are for individuals.

Recommendation

Provide as a minimum name (v:fn) and e-mail address (v:hasEmail), and optionally telephone number (v:hasTel) and URL (v:hasURL).

The email address as well as the telephone number should refer to a stable contact point, e.g. an organisational email address (e.g. feedback@organisation.org), not the email or the telephone number of an individual.

Additional recommendation:

Provide contact information for a department that handles requests and feedback, if such a department exists, rather than for the organisation as a whole. For example, the URL should point to a contact page or contact form rather than to the homepage of the organisation.

Rationale

A common approach to the minimum set of properties to be used would increase interoperability, as it allows publishers of catalogues and harvesters to expect a minimum common set of properties for each dataset, and at the same time gives users sufficient information to be able to contact the organisation that can answer any questions about a dataset.

Example

The example is based on the Nobel Prize catalogue, which is available via http://www.nobelprize.org/datasets/dcat. Some modifications were made in order to clarify the guideline.

<rdf:Description rdf:about="http://example.com/organisation/12345">

<rdf:type rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/2006/vcard/ns#Organization"/

<vcard:fn>Nobel Media AB</vcard:fn>

<vcard:hasTelephone rdf:parseType="Resource">

<vcard:hasValue rdf:resource="tel:086631722"/>

</vcard:hasTelephone>

<vcard:hasEmail rdf:resource="mailto:info@nobelmedia.org"/>

<vcard:hasURL rdf:resource="http://www.nobelmedia.org/"/>

</rdf:Description>