Re: [ISSUE-77] [ISSUE-48] Re: [Dbpedia-discussion] Skos subject properties are deprecated

On Thu, 24 Jan 2008 at 13:24:12, Richard Cyganiak <richard@cyganiak.de>
wrote
>All,
>
>I agree with Bernard that SKOS needs a property for attaching  resources to
>concepts.
>
>The problem with skos:subject at the moment is this: The Core Guide
>gives the impression that the domain of skos:subject is documents  only.
>But there is no explicit domain declared in the vocabulary  definition.
>Furthermore, several parties (e.g. DBpedia) have a clear  need for a property
>that relates non-document resources to  skos:Concepts.
>
>I think there are three options for resolving this:
>
>A) Clarify that the domain of skos:subject is indeed any resource, and  that
>the term “subject” is used loosely here.
>
>B) Clarify that the domain of skos:subject is documents only, and
>introduce a new super-property of skos:subject that explicitly covers  any
>resource. It could be named for example skos:category, or
>skos:indexedAs.
>
>C) Clarify that the domain of skos:subject is documents only, and  leave the
>task of defining a property non-document resources to others.
>
>My preference would be, in that order, B), A), C).
>
>Thanks,
>Richard

It may be of interest that in BS8723-1:2005 we have used the term
"documents" as a label for any kind of resources. The relevant
definition reads thus:

    "document

    item that can be classified or indexed in order that it may be
    retrieved

    NOTE  This definition refers not only to written and printed
    materials in paper or microform versions (for example, books,
    journals, diagrams, maps), but also to non-printed media,
    machine-readable and digitized records, Internet and intranet
    resources, films, sound recordings, people and organizations as
    knowledge resources, buildings, sites, monuments, three-dimensional
    objects or realia; and to collections of such items or parts of such
    items."

This is perhaps another illustration of the distinction between a
concept and the term which has been chosen to label it. I think that the
scope note above covers all the "non-document resources" that Richard
refers to.

Leonard Will

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Received on Thursday, 24 January 2008 14:27:50 UTC