Re: Back to identifiers

Karen, et al.,

How is a URI not an identifier? That's what the "I" stands for, right?
Am I missing something here? Why would we want two different design
patterns for actionable http identifiers & text-strings as
identifiers?

The kinds of additional metadata one might associate with an
identifier (who maintains it, when it was issued, &c) seem to apply
irrespective of whether the identifier is a URI or a string of text,
no? I agree that the URI for the ISBN does not *need* to be defined.
But should that prevent an agency that manages library identifiers
from defining it? I'm not sure I agree that this is out of scope, as
this is exactly the kind of metadata libraries & related organizations
provide. Now, it's out of scope for a discussion of schema.org
metadata about the books themselves; that I agree with.

And I also agree that it's weird that the example claims that the ISBN
"identifies" some OCLC metadata. That seems wrong to me. If anything,
both identifier point, though indirectly, to a book.

Thanks,
Corey

On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 2:21 PM, Karen Coyle <kcoyle@kcoyle.net> wrote:
> No, a URI is a URI. The identifier property extension that we have talked
> about is for identifiers that are not URIs. I believe at one point we had
> something like:
>
> Identifier
>  - value
>  - source/authority
>
> Thus, the URI for the ISBN does not need to be defined using the identifier
> property extension. Yet the example on the identifier page is:
>
> <http://bowker.com/identifiers/isbn/9780553479430>
>     a schema:Identifier;
>     schema:name "9780553479430";
>     schema:inStandard "ISBN";
>     schema:issuedBy <http://viaf.org/viaf/142397918>;
>     schema:issueDate  "1997";
>     schema:identifies <http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38264520>.
>
> Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but as long as there is a URI for the ISBN
> (and there always is because there is a defined URN for ISBN), then there is
> no need to re-describe it with the identifier extension. This description of
> the identifier I believe is out of scope for our work. (And looks a lot like
> ARK, which possibly had everything right but did not get wide-spread
> traction). I think we should stick to our task of finding a way to use
> identifiers that do not yet have URIs. If, instead, you are intending to
> mint URIs for those identifiers (issuedBy: above) then that is another case.
> This construct appears in the examples but not in the text, and I don't
> think we discussed that here. I think it would be over-reaching at this
> point in time.
>
> But what really baffles me here is that the Bowker ISBN is stated as
> identifying a WorldCat "thing." If anything, that would be reversed since
> the ISBN is assigned to the book before any library data is created. I do
> consider the ISBN to be *the* book identifier in our world and that perhaps
> our examples should look more like publishing examples than library catalog
> examples.
>
> kc
>
>
>
> On 1/18/13 9:52 AM, Young,Jeff (OR) wrote:
>>
>> I'm not sure I follow. The WorldCat URI is a URI, but it wouldn't make
>> sense to say that its rdf:type is xyz:Identifier. Is that the concern?
>> That's what I thought Richard was saying for awhile too, but if you look
>> at this examples he does keep them separate.
>>
>> Jeff
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Karen Coyle [mailto:kcoyle@kcoyle.net]
>>> Sent: Friday, January 18, 2013 12:48 PM
>>> To: Young,Jeff (OR)
>>> Subject: Re: Back to identifiers
>>>
>>> Worldcat URI is a URI. ISBN URI is a URI. Any problem there?
>>>
>>>
>>> kc
>>>
>>> On 1/18/13 9:42 AM, Young,Jeff (OR) wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Note that a WorldCat.org URI is not a number. The Linked Data 303
>>>
>>> (See
>>>>
>>>> Other) redirect is important because the 1st URI identifies "the
>>>
>>> thing"
>>>>
>>>> and the second identifies "a description of the thing" (what Corey
>>>> call "a record"). Both can have the same legacy number in them
>>>
>>> without
>>>>
>>>> causing ambiguity.
>>>>
>>>> Jeff
>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: Karen Coyle [mailto:kcoyle@kcoyle.net]
>>>>> Sent: Friday, January 18, 2013 12:36 PM
>>>>> To: Wallis,Richard
>>>>> Cc: Corey Harper; public-schemabibex@w3.org
>>>>> Subject: Re: Back to identifiers
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 1/18/13 8:58 AM, Richard Wallis wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>> For practical reasons, I don't support the notion that an OCLC #
>>>
>>> or
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> an LCCN are strictly identifiers for a book.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Neither do I
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Well, that's news to me, because when I suggested this to you, you
>>>>
>>>> came
>>>>>
>>>>> back with (and I quoted this before):
>>>>>
>>>>> "The ISBN is a string of characters (in ISBN scheme that Bowkers
>>>>> administer) that they have issued to represent the book - it is not
>>>>
>>>> the
>>>>>
>>>>> book.
>>>>>
>>>>> The WorldCat URI identifies the Book."
>>>>>
>>>>> And in another post:
>>>>>
>>>>> ***
>>>>> URIs are about providing dereferencable identifiers for 'things'.
>>>>>
>>>>> So when for instance the British Library asserts that the URI for a
>>>>> book in the BNB is sameAs in the German National library  they are
>>>>> saying the books are the same, not the records they have.
>>>>>
>>>>> It is the same with WorldCat - it's not just a pile of records it
>>
>> is
>>>>>
>>>>> [becoming] a graph (to use the current label) of relationships
>>>>> between things - people, places, organisations, concepts, and
>>>>> bibliographic works.
>>>>>
>>>>> The URIs represent the things not the records that are being mined
>>>
>>> to
>>>>>
>>>>> build descriptions of those things.
>>>>>
>>>>> ***
>>>>>
>>>>> You might see why I have been confused.
>>>>>
>>>>> Here's my take:
>>>>>
>>>>> Because of how we have done things in the past, we have identifiers
>>>>
>>>> for
>>>>>
>>>>> records that describe some level of bibliographic item. De facto,
>>
>> we
>>>>>
>>>>> have also used those identifiers for the "things" they describe. I
>>>>> suspect that this is a common situation for anyone in data
>>>>> processing, and I suggest that we not agonize over it but live with
>>>
>>> the ambiguity.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> And in this ambiguous world, ISBNs, LCCNs, BNB #s, OCLC#s, all work
>>>>> reasonably well to identify a creative output. They may also at
>>>
>>> times
>>>>>
>>>>> represent the record. That's life.
>>>>>
>>>>> So, back to identifiers (and I do NOT want this wrapped up in the
>>>>> discussion about SKOS because I DO NOT see SKOS:concept as valid
>>
>> for
>>>>
>>>> an
>>>>>
>>>>> identifier), I think our identifier proposal should be for
>>>>> identifiers that are not in URI format. full stop.
>>>>>
>>>>> kc
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Karen Coyle
>>>>> kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
>>>>> ph: 1-510-540-7596
>>>>> m: 1-510-435-8234
>>>>> skype: kcoylenet
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Karen Coyle
>>> kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
>>> ph: 1-510-540-7596
>>> m: 1-510-435-8234
>>> skype: kcoylenet
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> --
> Karen Coyle
> kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
> ph: 1-510-540-7596
> m: 1-510-435-8234
> skype: kcoylenet
>

Received on Friday, 18 January 2013 19:42:54 UTC