Re: FOAF spec revised - addtion of foaf:focus, a skos extension linking topical and factual information

Hi Simon

In the IFLA document you point we have this definition

*Focus*
In a compound term, the noun component that identifies the class of concepts
to which the term as a whole refers. (ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005). See also:
Modifier.

And checking the draft of ISO 25964 we get the same

section 7.2 "The nature of compound terms"

In the English language, compound terms very often consist of more than one
word ... The parts of most such terms can be distinguished as follows:

a)       the* focus* or head, i.e. the noun component which identifies the
general class of concepts to which the term as a whole refers;

EXAMPLES 2

1) the noun component "indexes" in the term "printed indexes"

2) the noun "hospitals" in the prepositional phrase "hospitals for children"

b)       the difference or modifier, i.e. one or more further components
which serve to narrow the scope of the focus and thereby specify one of its
subclasses;
...

So, indeed, possibly confusing

Bernard


2010/8/10 Simon Spero <ses@unc.edu>

> Ugly ifla url for y'all- searching for focus+modifier+thesaurus gives a lot
> of examples.
>
> Also, I'm on a tube train, using a mobile, and I'm annoyed that I'm not
> getting 4G. I am getting spoiled.
>
> Simon
>
>
> http://www.google.com/m/url?client=ms-android-sprint-us&ei=4EZhTLClGNvTlQe2veIe&gl=us&hl=en&q=http://www.ifla.org/VII/s29/pubs/Profrep115.pdf&source=android-launcher-search&ved=0CAkQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNGXxYqmKd3JfgznReqfAUn7qdtd1Q
>
> On Aug 10, 2010 4:13 AM, "Dan Brickley" <danbri@danbri.org> wrote:
> > +cc: Leigh
> >
> > On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 3:26 PM, Simon Spero <ses@unc.edu> wrote:
> >> Dan-
> >>
> >> can i suggest using a different word  than focus, as this is term of art
> in
> >> controlled vocabularies. It is used when referring to
> modified/specialized
> >> "terms".
> >
> >
> > Thanks for the feedback. It seems that words are like Internet domain
> > names; all the good ones are taken!
> >
> > To understand the extent of the "it's already in use" problem, could I
> > ask you to post a few sentences using 'focus' from the literature?
> > Even one would help.
> >
> > Naming RDF terms is something of a nightmare, because RDF is designed
> > to allow information to flow beyond its original comfort-zone;
> > whatever we choose here will show up in all kinds of unexpected
> > contexts, including the Web pages of various publishers.
> >
> > I originally liked the 'skos:it' (and skos:as inverse) since 'it' had
> > the charm of being at least easy to spell and quick to type. However
> > after bouncing 'it' around in discussions 'it' transpired that 'it'
> > was a bit too clever for 'its' own good, as a name. The 'focus' name
> > came from discussions with Leigh Dodds, who I Cc: here. Some of our
> > notes are in http://wiki.foaf-project.org/w/term_focus (btw each FOAF
> > term now has a Wiki page for annotations).
> >
> >> Possible labels that might work could be  isReferredToBy ; SKOS concepts
> are
> >> intentional-with-a-t, so reference is a natural label;
> >> isFoafProxyForIntentionReferencedBySKOSConcept is awful ComputerDeutch.
> >
> > So I see the logic behind 'isReferredToBy', however I'm cautious for a
> > few reasons. Firstly the inverse direction adds a level of confusion,
> > so we'd want to have 'references', eg. "skos_3 :references thing_23".
> > And since we're operating in the context of RDF, not to mention
> > hypertext, there are plenty of other contexts in which 'references'
> > gets used - mainly with documents. Which puts us in the awkward
> > situation of deciding whether to re-use an existing more general
> > purpose term that talks about reference; eg.
> > http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/ has
> > http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/#terms-isReferencedBy
> > already --- "A related resource that references, cites, or otherwise
> > points to the described resource." ... or if we proceed with a term
> > that is explicitly for use with skos:Concept, we should expect to see
> > it accidentally misused by anyone who is fumbling around looking for a
> > nice term to use when one thing references, mentions, or identifies
> > another thing.
> >
> > (aside: a possibility here might be to declare foaf:focus a sub
> > property of inverse of dcterms:isReferencedBy)
> >
> >> Foaf person "Paul The Octopus" isReferredTo by SKOS Concept "#PTO1".
> >>
> >> Where "#PTO1" isSubjectOf "#document" "Decideabity and tractablity of
> >> logical inference with binary serial octacles".
> >>
> >> (The halting problem has time complexity PTO(1) but other tasks may
> require
> >> an infinite series of questions.)
> >
> > Saying that the concept *references* the real world entity seems a
> > tiny bit strong anyway; I guess I'd say 'reference' with regard to the
> > concept's documentation, or with regard to a use of the concept in
> > some document. But at some level this is all metaphor anyhow; nothing
> > is really 'focussing' either. I had hoped 'focus' was a word that came
> > with relatively little baggage in this community and amongst Web
> > technologists, since 'topic' and 'subject' are already heavily
> > over-used.
> >
> > I think 'references' will prove too general/broad to use directly
> > (people will immediately start applying it with document 'mentions'
> > and hyperlinks), but I appreciate the feedback and suggestion. Same
> > with Bernard's 'referent', even though yes the basic idea is that the
> > concepts are proxying / standing in for / indirectly identifying /
> > referring to some real world entities.
> >
> > cheers,
> >
> > Dan
> >
> > ps. Another terminology possible ingredient; in FOAF we have a
> > property foaf:primaryTopic which points from a document to the thing
> > the document is primarily about. It has an inverse, isPrimaryTopicOf
> > too.
>



-- 
Bernard Vatant
Senior Consultant
Vocabulary & Data Engineering
Tel:       +33 (0) 971 488 459
Mail:     bernard.vatant@mondeca.com
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