OK, here are my best definitions, after talking with Leo_Verto last night:
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Work (adapted from MusicBrainz Wiki): In MetaBrainz terminology, a work is a distinct intellectual or artistic creation. It consists of a collection of ideas, often related. Examples of these ideas may be musical motifs, lyrics or melody within music, or literary devices and plot points within literature.
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Edition: An edition is a piece of literature which has been made available for public distribution. It may have been edited, compiled, illustrated and printed for physical distribution.
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Edition Group: An edition group is a set of editions which share an “identity”. Editions which share an identity will mostly have the same name (with small changes, such as articles added or removed, allowed), and will often be derived from the same set of works (although each edition of something like an anthology may feature a slightly different set).
Additionally, I’d like to remove our existing Creator and Publisher entities, and create:
- Individual: A person
- Collective: A group or organization of people
These two types can both be used in the same ways as Creator and Publisher can now. A person can self-publish, and could then be marked as a publisher for their own edition. A collective can author a book - for example, organizations who publish new translations of religious texts, or support literature attributed to a company.
Thoughts? 