RE: Data Catalog vocabulary (dcat) question

Hello,
 
> I'm looking at the dcat vocabulary (http://vocab.deri.ie/dcat). The
> overview diagram does not show any relation between Catalog Record and
> Dataset.

The diagram actually only shows properties that are under the dcat
namespace. 
We recommend using foaf:primaryTopic to point from the CatalogRecord to
the dataset.
For example see:
http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/govcat/page/catalogs/data.london.gov.uk/re
cords/Abandoned_Vehicles

FYI, work on dcat is now documented at
http://www.w3.org/egov/wiki/Data_Catalog_Vocabulary
And the namespace is now http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat
However please note that this is still in-progress work.


> This seems like an oversight to me. A Catalog Record needs to
> point to the Dataset that it describes. If this change makes sense,
> then I would also make another suggestion: a Catalog does not need to
> point directly to a Dataset. Instead it points to Catalog Records,
> which in turn point to Datasets.

The CatalogRecord is meant to be an optional entity only needed to
describe an entry-in-the-catalog describing a dataset and not the
dataset itself. For example to describe the last modification date of
the dataset description in the catalog (which does not mean that the
dataset itself is modified). When such distinction is not needed, dcat
representation of the catalog can contain only Dataset instances and no
CatalogRecords.
Hence, the three properties (dcat:dataset, dcat:record and
foaf:primaryTopic) which form a triangle to allow elimination of
dcat:CatalogRecord.

Regards,
Fadi

Received on Tuesday, 4 January 2011 17:30:09 UTC