Description
At the July 12th, 2012 meeting of the Reference Information Model subcommittee, the members discussed the following topic:
1. What is the difference between “layers” and “profiles” and what is our position on the concept of “layers”? (Answer: “Profiles” are more like restrictions on schema whereas “layers” are more like extensions by defining sets of name/value pairs, for example utilizing the parameter name/value pairs provided in the CAP schema. This “layers” concept is a grass-roots effort which captures and helps to standardize emergency management terminology. OASIS could provide guidance and a place to register these “layers”. Also to formalize the “layers” concept a bit for use across the EDXL standards, we would recommend utilizing a structure in the common types similar to the ValueList. For example the ValueKeyStringPairType provides a URI with a single name/value, but a NameValueList structure could easily be created that would have a URI and then a list of name/values. In this way the “layers” structure would be supported across all the EDXL family and the advantage of having a URI to unique identify the “layer” would be helpful for standardization and lookup/registration. )