RE: Glossary of terms relating to thesauri and faceted classifica tion

> Not quite...  I am not talking about the thesaurus concepts
> that are described using the SKOS Core vocabulary but the
> "terms" of the SKOS Core vocabulary itself -- terms such as
> Collection [1] or even Concept [2].  As in: "The base namespace
> for all terms in the SKOS Core vocabulary is..." and "Each term
> (i.e.  class or property) in the SKOS Core vocabulary..." [3].
> 

Sorry Tom, I misunderstood you too.  I have often wanted to use a different
name to refer to the 'elements/terms/blah' of the SKOS Core vocabulary
itself, but couldn't think of a better name.  The best alternative I thought
of so far is to refer to the 'classes and properties' of the SKOS Core
vocabulary.  Do you think we should substitute 'terms' for 'classes and
properties' in the SKOS Core Guide and Spec where it has this meaning?

> To muddy the waters yet further: in the draft SPARQL spec,
> an "RDF Term" is defined as "anything that can occur in the
> RDF data model" -- i.e., literals and URI references! [4]
> 
> This is somewhat in line with the notion that a vocabulary is a
> "set of URI references" [5,6].  (Or is it...?)
> 
> I do not see any way around the "term" problem other than to
> specify what one means in a particular context ("thesaurus
> term", "SKOS term", "RDF term"...).

This is a major problem for SKOS.  We could perhaps talk about the SKOS Core
'resource set' where SKOS Core is itself a description of a set of
'resources' (in the RDF sense), and each SKOS Core resource is either an RDF
property or an RDFS class.  But here also 'resource' to RDF people means
'thing' whereas 'resource' to most SKOS Core users probably means 'document'
or 'information resource'.

I would for now like to avoid the phrase "SKOS term", because it is not
clear whether that refers to the SKOS Core vocabulary itself or instance
data described using the SKOS Core vocabulary.  Better we talk about "the
RDF terms of the SKOS Core vocabulary" or something like that.

It is our bane to be working at the confluence of two domains with so much
overlapping vocabulary :)

Al.





> 
> Tom
> 
> [1] http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#Collection
> [2] http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#Concept
> [3] http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core/spec/2004-12-17.html
> [4] http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/
> [5] http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-mt/
> [6] http://www.w3.org/2003/glossary/subglossary/owl-guide.rdf/20
> 
> -- 
> Dr. Thomas Baker                        Thomas.Baker@izb.fraunhofer.de
> Institutszentrum Schloss Birlinghoven         mobile +49-160-9664-2129
> Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft                          work +49-30-8109-9027
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> Personal email: thbaker79@alumni.amherst.edu
>

Received on Monday, 17 January 2005 15:19:50 UTC