Re: ISSUE-41 (alt/alternative): use of skos:altLabel or dcterms:alternative [Registered Organization Vocabulary]

On 23 Oct 2012, at 14:53, Government Linked Data Working Group Issue Tracker wrote:
> In his comments [1], Richard suggests using skos:prefLabel and skoa:altlabel for what is currently rov:legalName and dcterms:alternative.

(Note, I suggested making rov:legalName a superproperty of skos:prefLabel.)

> The reasoning is sound in that this is inline with ORG. However, some jurisdictions, such as Canada, where a company can have more than one legal name. They're not translations and there is no order of preference.

Ah, okay. I didn't realize that. I guess I misinterpreted this sentence:

[[
A business might have more than one legal name, particularly in countries with more than one official language.
]]

I read this as: “it happens only in countries with more than one official language”. I now see that this isn't what the sentence says, but it's easy to misinterpret.

> We'd have to allow multiple skos:preLabel properties which isn't good.

In fact, it's SKOS-inconsistent.

> Hence ity is questionable whether it is appropriate to define rov:lagelName as a sub property of skos:prefLabel.

Right. I withdraw this part of the suggestion.

I'm tempted to suggest that using skos:prefLabel in the mapping should still be allowed in those jurisdictions where there's only one legal name per language, and use skos:label otherwise, but that seems like a kludge.

(ORG says that skos:prefLabel should be used for the legally recognized name. I guess there's an issue here, and ORG should say what to do if there's more than one?)

> Richard then suggests using skos:altLabel rather than dcterms:alternative. This again seems logical but given the above, so we want to suggest the use of skos:altLabel in the absence of skos:prefLabel?

Yes, to be ORG-conformant. Or is there anything in SKOS that discourages altLabels if no prefLabel exists?

Best,
Richard



> 
> [1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-gld-wg/2012Oct/0101.html
> 
> 
>

Received on Tuesday, 23 October 2012 15:16:53 UTC