RE: VIAF contributor model

Ross is right that two resources are being modeled. (And more as he notes.) I didn't knowingly create these with the intention of separating author/subject use cases, though. (My intentions were a mystery even to me at the time.) 

In hindsight, my feeling is that the useful difference is that the skos:Concept is (explicitly or implicitly) bound to an identified "scheme" (skos:inScheme) whereas a foaf:Person simply "is". Clients can choose the perspective they like while others can use foaf:focus to reconcile them. (It would be nice if foaf:focus had an owl:inverseOf to give parity to these perspectives.)

I suspect that "authority control" is a soon-to-be-anachronistic form of "skos:inScheme".

Jeff

> -----Original Message-----
> From: rxs@talisplatform.com [mailto:rxs@talisplatform.com] On Behalf Of
> Ross Singer
> Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2010 5:33 PM
> To: Tillett, Barbara
> Cc: Young,Jeff (OR); public-lld
> Subject: Re: VIAF contributor model
> 
> There are two resources modeled:
> 
> http://viaf.org/viaf/111894442/#skos:Concept
> 
> and
> 
> http://viaf.org/viaf/111894442/#foaf:Person
> 
> (well, obviously there are more than that minted at:
> http://viaf.org/viaf/111894442/rdf.xml)
> 
> the first would appropriate for biographies of Bob Dylan, etc. the
> latter for works by him.
> 
> -Ross.
> 
> On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 5:11 PM, Tillett, Barbara <btil@loc.gov> wrote:
> > I still remain concerned that by using SKOS for names of persons and
> > corporate bodies, there is either an explicit or implied "is the
> subject
> > of"  relationship going on for the person/corporate body being
> described
> > with respect to some work.  Am I wrong? - Barbara Tillett
> >
> >
> >
> > From: public-lld-request@w3.org [mailto:public-lld-request@w3.org] On
> Behalf
> > Of Young,Jeff (OR)
> > Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2010 5:05 PM
> > To: public-lld
> > Subject: RE: VIAF contributor model
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks for all the feedback. Sorry for my lag following up.
> >
> >
> >
> > VIAF still needs to deliver more substance to fulfill its potential,
> but the
> > next release should improve interoperability while adding support for
> > foaf:Organization/rdaEnt:CorporateBody. Mockups of Jane Austen and
> Die
> > deutsche Nationalbibliothek are attached.
> >
> >
> >
> > As suggested back at the start of this thread, SKOS will play a core
> > infrastructure role in the next release. Each contributor will be
> modeled as
> > a skos:ConceptScheme and every contributed record will be modeled as
> a
> > skos:Concept in the contributor's scheme. The contributed concept
> URIs
> > coined by VIAF will be based on the contributor's "record" ID and
> will
> > behave by redirecting to the VIAF cluster to which it is matched
> (which
> > could change over time).
> >
> >
> >
> > Here is a test system URI for a contributed SELIBR record (207420) to
> > demonstrate:
> >
> >
> >
> > http://test.viaf.org/viaf/sourceID/SELIBR|207420#skos:Concept
> >
> >
> >
> > Tangent: IMO, Library Linked Data authority systems in the future
> SHOULD be
> > based on skos:ConceptScheme/skos:Concept and we're starting to see
> this with
> > LCSH and SELIBR. I suspect that ANY skos:ConceptScheme could
> potentially be
> > viewed as an "authority system" and clients should be able to use
> them as
> > such without assuming any architecture or domain model dependencies.
> >
> >
> >
> > For VIAF contributors that choose to follow the SKOS model in their
> own
> > domains, VIAF should map to their URIs using owl:sameAs. You can
> observe
> > this in the attached example for Jane Austen involving SELIBR:
> >
> >
> >
> > <http://viaf.org/viaf/sourceID/SELIBR%7C207420#skos:Concept>
> >
> > skos:inScheme <http://viaf.org/authorityScheme/SELIBR> ;
> >
> > owl:sameAs <http://libris.kb.se/resource/auth/207420#concept> .
> >
> >
> >
> > I suspect there will be some concern that VIAF is coining "alias"
> URIs, but
> > I would argue that intentional HTTP URI aliases play a *functional
> role* in
> > Linked Data by decentralizing information *about* the thing. SELIBR
> can
> > deliver its information about "the thing" from its URI and VIAF can
> deliver
> > more (especially linking) information from its URI. The information
> may come
> > from different perspectives and yet the players mutually agree it's
> the same
> > "real world" thing they're describing.
> >
> >
> >
> > The solution for the http://www.w3.org/TR/skos-reference/#S14
> integrity
> > constraint for skos:prefLabel on "clusters" is still unclear to me
> and thus
> > won't be addressed in the next release. (Sorry.) The custom
> properties
> > viaf:hasEstablishedForm and viaf:hasXRefAlternate properties will
> continue
> > to be used for now although the use cases for them are unclear.
> >
> >
> >
> > Nevertheless, I want to align the VIAF ontology with SKOS/SKOSXL
> wherever
> > possible and so the viaf:Heading class will be upgraded to
> skosxl:Label in
> > the ontology like so:
> >
> >
> >
> > viaf:Heading rdfs:subClassOf skosxl:Label .
> >
> >
> >
> > In deference to FRSAD, the next release of VIAF will continue to
> treat
> > labels (i.e. viaf:Headings) as 1st class identifiable resources at
> the
> > expense of using plain literals. Without practical use cases, I'm
> > uncomfortable with this choice.
> >
> >
> >
> > Jeff
> >
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Received on Wednesday, 10 November 2010 04:02:09 UTC