Re: Planned changes to the VIAF RDF

Quoting Dan Brickley <danbri@danbri.org>:


> As a loose rule, I see value in the latter when the thing figures in
> some SKOS scheme, either to be mentioned alongside other related
> entities (also indirectly as concepts) or so that
> person_123_as_politician, person_123_as_parent, person_123_as_author
> could be distinguished as different topics. There is value in that,
> both for using those topic URIs to characterise information, but also
> to talk in more detail about skills/expertise. Someone might be a
> world export on "President George Bush snr. as a manager".

I can see this becoming unwieldy, however.
   person_123_who_was_walking_along_Main_Street_on_Saturday_July_7_2011

It seems that there's a noun-verb struggle here. The person is the  
same person, the activity is different. I know that some of these  
distinctions are bound into our subject headings, but rather than  
change the identity of the person I would prefer that we use the name  
in a context where possible.

George Bush --> served as POTUS --> dates
George Bush --> author of --> autobiog

It's the same person, but the activity of the person has changed, not  
his identity.

kc



-- 
Karen Coyle
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
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Received on Wednesday, 13 April 2011 14:50:31 UTC