RE : Encoding classification systems in SKOS: project to develop concept coordination

Dear Leaonard, Alistair,

Indeed we face for LCSH a problem similar to the coordination/combination one in classifications systems. And as http://arxiv.org/abs/0805.2855 reports it, we've not solved it yet. We hope to make progress on that on the coming weeks/months, though. We'll report to you as soon as we've got something. It would be nice to ensure that whatever solution we could come with is also compatible with BC2 (or reciprocally, if you are the first to propose something ;-)

Best,

Antoine

-------- Message d'origine--------
De: public-esw-thes-request@w3.org de la part de Alistair Miles
Date: lun. 20/10/2008 08:59
À: Leonard Will
Cc: SKOS
Objet : Re: Encoding classification systems in SKOS: project to develop 	concept coordination
 

Dear Leonard,

It is wonderful to hear this news. BC2 seems to be an enormously
valuable resource, in terms of content, structure and indexing
practice. I had always hoped we might use the BC2 as a case study to
develop extensions or adaptations to SKOS to support synthetic
classification, but alas we haven't had the time. I wholeheartedly
support this project, and look forward to its outcome for both SKOS
and BS8723.

This is also very timely as the excellent recent work done by Ed
Summers, Clay Redding and Dan Krech at the Library of Congress on
LCSH, and by Michael Panzer & co. at OCLC on DDC, is now
emerging. There may be opportunities to put the BC2 work in a wider
context.

Kind regards,

Alistair.

On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 05:23:22PM +0100, Leonard Will wrote:
>
> 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
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> L.Will@Willpowerinfo.co.uk               Sheena.Will@Willpowerinfo.co.uk
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>
>

-- 
Alistair Miles
Senior Computing Officer
Image Bioinformatics Research Group
Department of Zoology
The Tinbergen Building
University of Oxford
South Parks Road
Oxford
OX1 3PS
United Kingdom
Web: http://purl.org/net/aliman
Email: alistair.miles@zoo.ox.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1865 281993