RE: [Proposal][SKOS-Core] skos:denotes

Hi Leonard,

No, this is something a bit different.  Others will be able to explain the
intention more clearly than I, but here's a brief go (I hope I don't do more
harm than good) ...

The principle motivation is to provide a bridge between two *styles* of
describing things, which collide on the semantic web.  

The 'ontology style' describes things in terms of their properties (i.e.
with *logical* constructs).  For example, you can use OWL (and FOAF) to talk
about 'the Person with email address <mailto:a.j.miles@rl.ac.uk>'.

The 'thesaurus style' describes concepts by using their indicative lexical
labels, explanatory prose, and links to semantically related concepts (i.e.
with *linguistic* constructs).  For example, you can use SKOS Core to talk
about 'what I have in mind when I use the term [Alistair Miles]'.

The proposal here is to model 'the Person with email address
<mailto:a.j.miles@rl.ac.uk>' and 'what I have in mind when I use the term
[Alistair Miles]' in RDF as *separate resources*.  A special predicate (i.e.
skos:denotes or whatever) may then be used to link them.

It would be nice to have a firm philosophical basis for this proposal, but I
think the primary motivation is pragmatic (i.e. how to cope in practise with
co-existence of OWL and SKOS Core) so ... hmmm.

That's it for now.

Al.

---
Alistair Miles
Research Associate
CCLRC - Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Building R1 Room 1.60
Fermi Avenue
Chilton
Didcot
Oxfordshire OX11 0QX
United Kingdom
Email:        a.j.miles@rl.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1235 445440



> -----Original Message-----
> From: public-esw-thes-request@w3.org
> [mailto:public-esw-thes-request@w3.org]On Behalf Of Leonard Will
> Sent: 29 September 2004 15:51
> To: Miles, AJ (Alistair)
> Cc: 'Kal Ahmed'; 'public-esw-thes@w3.org'
> Subject: Re: [Proposal][SKOS-Core] skos:denotes
> 
> 
> 
> In message
> <350DC7048372D31197F200902773DF4C05E50C42@exchange11.rl.ac.uk> on Wed,
> 29 Sep 2004, "Miles, AJ (Alistair)" <A.J.Miles@rl.ac.uk> wrote
> >
> >To help clear things up ...
> >
> >This property (whatever we end up calling it) is intended to 
> be a bridge
> >between thesaurus style descriptions of things and ontology style
> >descriptions of things.  Others (Danbri help me out here) 
> will be able to
> >give better examples than me, but here is one example:
> >
> >my:conceptA            a       skos:Concept;
> >       skos:prefLabel  'Alistair Miles';
> >       skos:denotes    [       a       foaf:Person;
> >                                               foaf:mbox
> ><mailto:a.j.miles@rl.ac.uk>    ].
> >
> >It has also been suggested to have further properties like
> >'skos:denotesClass' and 'skos:denotesIndividual' ... what do 
> folks think
> >about that?
> 
> Sorry, but I am not at all clear as to the meaning of this. 
> It seems to
> me that you are using something very similar to the "instance"
> relationship in the thesaurus standards, which would have
> 
> mountains
> NT      Ben Nevis
>         Everest
> 
> where the proper names, or "classes of one", are "instances" of the
> class "mountains". This can be designated by the relationship BTI/NTI
> (broader/narrower term instantial) which you recently decided not to
> include in the main part of your product.
> 
> Or do you want to cite specific instances as "examples", helping to
> clarify the meaning of the broader concept, as Stella 
> suggested recently
> might be an interpretation of the inclusion of a URI?
> 
> Leonard
> -- 
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Received on Wednesday, 29 September 2004 15:18:35 UTC