Re: Concept Equivalence, IFPs, skos:subjectIndicator and owl:sameAs (was Re: SKOS Guide and owl:sameAs)

Hi Alistair

Happy to see you have a look at this. Mieux vaut tard que jamais :-)

Since the thread has been quite long, do you want me to try and sum up 
the issue?

Cheers

Bernard

Alistair Miles a écrit :
>
> Hi Stuart,
>
> Quick comment without having read the subsequent thread in detail ...
>
> I think you have revealed a potential inconsistency in the design of 
> SKOS. Certainly worthy of an item in the issues list - I'll do that 
> when I get a chance.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alistair.
>
> Williams, Stuart (HP Labs, Bristol) wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> Firstly I am new to SKOS, so apologies if this has come up before.
>>
>> The SKOS guide (as indicated in this thread) discourages the use of 
>> owl:sameAs to establish equivalence relations between skos:Concepts 
>> because:
>>
>> <http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-skos-core-guide/#secidentity>
>> "The property owl:sameAs should not be used to express the fact that 
>> two conceptual resources (i.e. resources of type skos:Concept) share 
>> the same meaning. The property owl:sameAs implies that two resources 
>> are identical in every way (they are in fact the same resource). 
>> Although two conceptual resources may have the same meaning, they may 
>> have different owners, different labels, different documentation, 
>> different history, and of course a different future."
>>
>> However, the use of skos:subjectIndicator, defined inverse 
>> functional, is described in:
>>
>> <http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-skos-core-guide/#secpsi>
>> "The property skos:subjectIndicator allows you to assert a link 
>> between a concept and a human-readable document that provides a 
>> complete, definitive description of that concept.
>> ...
>> The skos:subjectIndicator property is an 
>> owl:InverseFunctionalProperty, which means that if any two nodes in 
>> an RDF graph have the same value for this property, then they are the 
>> same resource [OWL]. Therefore you can use the skos:subjectIndicator 
>> property to indirectly identify a concept by reference to the URI of 
>> the document that is the published subject indicator for that concept."
>>
>> So... if the same skos:subjectIndicator is asserted for two (or more) 
>> skos:Concepts then it can be inferred that they are the same 
>> skos:Concept which seems to be at odds with the desire *not* to 
>> establish such equivalences as expressed in the narrative above 
>> discouraging the use of owl:sameAs.
>>
>> Is there a reason why concept equivalences established via the 
>> skos:subjectIndicator are "good" and equivalencies established via 
>> owl:sameAs are bad?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Stuart Williams
>> -- 
>> HP Labs, Bristol.
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> There is a confusion of different things here.
>>>
>>> 1- skos:Concept is a class.
>>> 2- instances of skos:Concept are called "concepts" in the SKOS 
>>> documents.
>>>
>>> 3- mapping of skos:Concept to another class can be done with 
>>> owl:equivalentClass
>>> 4- mapping of instances of skos:Concept to other skos:Concept 
>>> instances (from other vocabularies) can be done with owl:sameAs
>>> 5- mapping of instances of skos:Concept to other instances (from 
>>> other vocabularies) can also be done with the SKOS mapping 
>>> properties, e.g. exactMatch [1]
>>>
>>> Now the confusion is about which kind of mapping (3-5) is meant. The 
>>> "Concept Identity and Mapping" section [2] states that mapping type 
>>> 4 should not be used, instead type 5 is better. This is because the 
>>> former states that they are the same *in every respect*, while the 
>>> latter only states that their extensions are the same (set of docs 
>>> indexed with one concept is also properly indexed with the other). 
>>> If you use the former you also merge their metadata, e.g. date of 
>>> creation and scheme they belong to. They become indistinguishable. 
>>> The latter keeps them distinguishable.
>>>
>>> The text mentioned does not refer to type 3 at all. This mapping 
>>> would be required if someone is not using the SKOS schema for a 
>>> vocabulary, but  something similar. Then a mapping
>>>
>>>     skos:Concept owl:equivalentClass my:Concept
>>>
>>> can be used to make all instances of my:Concept also skos:Concepts, 
>>> so they can be manipulated by software that understands SKOS.
>>>
>>> Hope this helps,
>>> Mark.
>>>
>>> [1]http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/mapping/spec/#exactMatch
>>> [2]http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-swbp-skos-core-guide-20051102/#secidentity 
>>>
>>>
>>> Nabonita Guha wrote:
>>>> */Bernard Vatant <bernard.vatant@mondeca.com>/* wrote:
>>>>
>>>>  >A skos:Concept is not a class, and the domain of 
>>>> owl:equivalentClass is
>>>>  >owl:Class
>>>>
>>>> Whereas in SKOS Core guide 
>>>> (http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-swbp-skos-core-guide-20051102/#secconcept), 
>>>> skos:Concept has been described as a class. If it's not a Class 
>>>> then what it can be considered as?
>>>>
>>>> Best,
>>>>
>>>> Nabonita Guha
>>>>
>>>> Senior Research Fellow
>>>> Documentation Research & Training Centre
>>>> Indian Statistical Institute
>>>> Bangalore INDIA
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>     Hi Andrew
>>>>      > The SKOS guide [1], in the "Concept Identity and Mapping"
>>>>     section, states that owl:sameAs *should not* be used to indicate
>>>>     that two concepts share the same meaning. It gives some 
>>>> rationale in
>>>>     the section for this. Looking at the OWL guide [2], in the "4.1.
>>>>     Equivalence between Classes and Properties" section, I'm wondering
>>>>     whether one can use owl:equivalentClass to indicate that two
>>>>     concepts share the same meaning. If there is a reason why
>>>>     owl:equivalentClass can/cannot be used for this, should it also be
>>>>     mentioned in "Concept Identity and Mapping" section?
>>>>      >
>>>>     Yes, there is a good reason.
>>>>     A skos:Concept is not a class, and the domain of 
>>>> owl:equivalentClass is
>>>>     owl:Class
>>>>
>>>>     Cheers
>>>>
>>>>     Bernard
>>>>
>>>>      >
>>>>      > Thanks, Andy.
>>>>      >
>>>>      > [1]
>>>>      > [2]
>>>>      >
>>>>      >
>>>>      >
>>>>
>>>>     --
>>>>     *Bernard Vatant
>>>>     *Knowledge Engineering
>>>>     ----------------------------------------------------
>>>>     *Mondeca**
>>>>     *3, cité Nollez 75018 Paris France
>>>>     Web: www.mondeca.com
>>>>     ----------------------------------------------------
>>>>     Tel: +33 (0) 871 488 459
>>>>     Mail: bernard.vatant@mondeca.com
>>>>     Blog: Leçons de Choses
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
>>>>
>>>> Want to start your own business? Learn how on Yahoo! Small 
>>>> Business. 
>>>> <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=41244/*http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/r-index> 
>>>>
>>> -- 
>>>   Mark F.J. van Assem - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
>>>         markREMOVE@cs.vu.nl - http://www.cs.vu.nl/~mark
>>
>

-- 

*Bernard Vatant
*Knowledge Engineering
----------------------------------------------------
*Mondeca**
*3, cité Nollez 75018 Paris France
Web:    www.mondeca.com <http://www.mondeca.com>
----------------------------------------------------
Tel:       +33 (0) 871 488 459
Mail:     bernard.vatant@mondeca.com <mailto:bernard.vatant@mondeca.com>
Blog:    Leçons de Choses <http://mondeca.wordpress.com/>

Received on Thursday, 23 November 2006 15:39:02 UTC