IETF Internet Draft on Web Linking Considered as a Proposed Standard

The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) announced receipt of aa request to consider version -07 of the "Web Linking" specificationas an IETF Proposed Standard. The IESG plans to make a decision in thenext few weeks, and solicits final comments on this action through2010-02-17.
This document specifies relation types for Web links, and defines aregistry for them. It also defines the use of such links in HTTP headerswith the Link header-field.
Background: "A means of indicating the relationships between resourceson the Web, as well as indicating the type of those relationships, hasbeen available for some time in HTML, and more recently in Atom (IETFRFC 4287). These mechanisms, although conceptually similar, are separatelyspecified. However, links between resources need not be format-specific;it can be useful to have typed links that are independent of theirserialisation, especially when a resource has representations inmultiple formats. To this end, this document defines a framework fortyped links that isn't specific to a particular serialisation orapplication. It does so by re-defining the link relation registryestablished by Atom to have a broader domain, and adding to it therelations that are defined by HTML.
Appendix E (Document History) in this 25-page document lists some sixteen(16) changes since the publication of version -06 (20 pages): Allowedmultiple spaces between relation types; Relaxed requirements forregistered relations; Removed Defining New Link Serialisations appendix;Added Field registry; Added registry XML format; Changed registrationprocedure to use mailing list(s), giving the Designated Experts moreresponsibility for the smooth running of the registry; Loosened prohibitionagainst media-specific relation types to SHOULD NOT; Disallowedregistration of media-specific relation types -- can still be used asextension types; Clarified that parsers are responsible for resolvingrelative URIs; Fixed ABNF for extended-initial-value; Fixed 'title*'parameter quoting in example; Added notes for registered relations thatlack a reference; Added 'hreflang' parameter; Clarified status of 'rev';Removed advice to use '@profile' in HTML4; Clarified what multiple'*title' and 'hreflang' attributes mean... More Info