[ogg-dev] The use for an XML based metadata format

[Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves]

I've been trying to follow the situation here, because that's one of
the things I try to do in Xiph: know what's happening.  There's a
total of 70 messages related with recent metadata discussions.

Here's what I have understood so far:

* Daniel is still not trying to read and understand the _other_
metadata proposals; he makes several non-true statements regarding
them.
* Daniel wants to "stuff in" a new metadata format no matter the cost
to backwards-compatibility; he also intends it to completely
obliterate Vorbis Comment.  All of this is highly ambitious,
especially for someone with no actual knowledge in the field.
* There's interest again in metadata in Ogg.  This be a good thing.
* Skeleton still seems to me to be the more advanced and logical step
for metadata in Ogg.

Here's my take on the issue:
Metadata is highly overrated outside the Semantic Web.  As far as I
see, that's why nobody actually cared to support anything but Vorbis
Comments, ID3 hacks (in MP3), and APE tags (in whatever proprietary
format that uses that).  I believe Matroska has no metadata support
either, but I may be wrong.  So, if it's for the Semantic Web, using
W3C-based proposals are likely the best solution.  After all, they are
the ones behind the whole thing to begin with.  RDF is probably too
complicated for Ogg, though.

I guess in the end I can't offer any decent help or advice right now,
but I felt like writing this anyway.  How does that American saying
goes?  "It felt like a good idea at the time".

-Ivo