ISSUE-186: Last Call Comment: Mappings

ISSUE-186: Last Call Comment: Mappings

http://www.w3.org/2006/07/SWD/track/issues/186

Raised by: Sean Bechhofer
On product: SKOS

Raised by Michael Panzer [1]:

6. Mappings
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The problem of restricting SKOS to one-to-one mappings has already been
raised as ISSUE-131. We share the concerns expressed there.

We also see potential problems in deriving the mapping relations
skos:broadMatch and skos:narrowMatch from skos:broader and
skos:narrower. In ISO standard and current practices many multilingual
thesauri did not use broader or narrower to indicate the mapping
relations. SKOS should revisit those standards and follow the current
standards' development to make sure SKOS is consistent in representing
the indicators used by standards (and the thesauri following those
standards) for so many years.  

In addition, when mapping systems that are structurally heterogeneous
(e.g., classification systems and thesauri), the links established
through mappings have no hierarchical implications at all.

Currently, skos:broader is used both for the hierarchical relationship
between classes as well as between concepts. Mapping relations that are
subproperties of skos:broader/skos:narrower are not able to sufficiently
support interoperability between structurally heterogeneous systems.

In addition, many different indicators of degree of mapping have been
used in integrated vocabularies, e.g., major mapping, minor mapping,
alternative mapping, and overlapping.  These may make the mapping
properties even more complicated. The solution here might again be to
extend mapping properties.

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-swd-wg/2008Oct/0061.html

Received on Wednesday, 8 October 2008 10:09:35 UTC