Wondering how many people use the data-about element

Greetings,

 

Is anyone on the TC using the data-about element?

 

I was working yesterday on revising that topic for the DITA 2.0 spec. As part of that, I tried to rephrase the short description into something that I myself found easier to understand, and I struggled:

The <data-about> element identifies the subject of a property when the subject isn't associated with the context in which the property is specified. The property itself is expressed by the <data> element. The <data-about> element handles exception cases where a property must be expressed somewhere other than inside the actual subject of the property. The <data-about> element is particularly useful as a basis for specialization in combination with the <data> element.

Important: Do not use the <data-about> element to identify the object of a property. The @href attribute of the <data> element serves that purpose.

 

http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/dita/v1.3/errata02/os/complete/part2-tech-content/langRef/base/data-about.html

 

I always use <data> for generic metadata (as intended) but have never used <data-about>. Iâve always understood it as âA way to say something about data elements themselvesâ, which I still think is right, but Iâm wondering if anyone else has a real-world example for them.

 

Thanks,

Robert