Re: RE : RE : aboutness and broader

On Jun 8, 2008, at 9:53 AM, Antoine Isaac wrote:
> To add to a previous mail of Leonard, I don't think we disagree on  
> what the 'real' indexing link should be for the document.
> My problem is that if you add the axiom Alistair proposes, then a  
> knowledge base that has both SKOS information and dc:subject would  
> return, in a set of indistinguishable results, both the dc:subject  
> 'at the right level' and the more general subjects that can be  
> inferred from it.
> Or more precisely: you can make the distinction, but then your query  
> to the knowledge base should be different, more explicit, like 'find  
> all the subjects of the book for which there is no specialization  
> which is also
>
The trouble with this approach is that it attempts to impose  
implementation of a reasoning system directly into the semantics of a  
knowledge base.

There is no requirement for a specific inferencing process  to compute  
every possible inference implied by a knowledge base;  in fact, in  
many cases that's exactly what you don't want to do.  This is all a  
function of the search/inference engine.
For example, if 25% of all documents about animals are documents about  
cats, one might weight a document about animals not explicitly indexed  
with cats proportionately lower when broadening upwards.

Again, this is all a function of the chosen inference engine, not the  
semantics of narrower and broader.

Simon