- From: Leonard Will <L.Will@willpowerinfo.co.uk>
- Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:23:22 +0100
- To: SKOS <public-esw-thes@w3.org>
The Bliss Classification Association (BCA) <http://www.blissclassification.org.uk/> has for some years been developing a general faceted classification, "BC2", covering all subjects and based on the theoretical work of the Classification Research Group developed over the past fifty years or so. At present the classification is developed in a tagged text format with a lot of ad-hoc embedded codes, and some specialised programs have been developed to generate printed output from this, including systematic classified schedules, an alphabetical subject index to the classification, and a thesaurus of the concepts which it includes. To allow the classification to be used in modern applications, the BCA wishes to make it available in a machine-readable form, conforming to any relevant standards and able to be processed with a wide variety of non-proprietary software, both on the Web and in off-line applications. This implies that some form of XML format will be required, and two possibilities that might serve as a basis are SKOS and the BS8723 formats at <http://schemas.bs8723.org/>. However, these formats at present are designed primarily for thesauri, and do not provide for the coordination of concepts that a classification scheme requires. SKOS considered coordination as its "Issue 40", and a lot of discussion ensued, but on 8th May 2008 it resolved "to postpone issue 40, due to lack of time, lack of implementation experience with tentative solutions, and unclear interaction between SKOS and OWL". In a faceted classification scheme such as BC2, many different concepts may be combined, to represent complex subjects such as "The use of parting agents in the casting of metal sculptures" or "The effect of fluoridation of water supplies on the incidence of dental disease". These subjects may be made up of concepts from several facets, such as "disciplines", "objects", "activities", "materials", "abstract concepts", "people", "place", "time" and so on, and do not have simple generic/specific hierarchical relationships. The schedules of the scheme contain many examples of such combinations, but the classifier applying the scheme to information resources is free to make up others by combining concepts according to stated rules. Any encoding format for a classification scheme needs to be able to represent these compounds, and to display them clearly, showing their structure, both when the scheme is browsed on its own and when it is used to provide headings for a systematic classified catalogue of information resources. It should also be possible to search for any constituent concept and view the compounds in which it occurs. The BCA is keen to make progress with this, and has a small amount of money available that might support a minor project. We seek views and suggestions on how we might proceed. Leonard Will Member of the BCA Committee. -- Willpower Information (Partners: Dr Leonard D Will, Sheena E Will) Information Management Consultants Tel: +44 (0)20 8372 0092 27 Calshot Way, Enfield, Middlesex EN2 7BQ, UK. Fax: +44 (0)870 051 7276 L.Will@Willpowerinfo.co.uk Sheena.Will@Willpowerinfo.co.uk ---------------- <URL:http://www.willpowerinfo.co.uk/> -----------------
Received on Sunday, 19 October 2008 16:29:24 UTC