Re: LOCN and DGGS

Hi Andrea,

I wonder if a DGGS code should be regarded as an identifier. I would say
its primary purpose is not to identify something, but to tell where
something is located. It seems to me that as a specification of location,
it is something akin to geometry or address. LOCN has special classes for
those two. So if indeed a DGGS code is a specification of location, could
or should an extension of LOCN be made to accommodate DGGS? Or could it be
sufficient to say that a resource is a locn:Location and therefore any
rdfs:seeAlso properties could be DGGS codes? That would require the DGGS
reference to be a single URI, and it would require a certain amount of
reasoning for the consumer.

Regards,
Frans




On 18 November 2016 at 18:42, Andrea Perego <andrea.perego@jrc.ec.europa.eu>
wrote:

> Hi, Frans.
>
> Just for our records: The notion of "geographic identifier" and the use of
> rdfs:seeAlso in LOCN was thoroughly discussed back in 2014, in a long
> thread - starting at [1] and continuing at [2]. Basically, the point is
> that "geographic identifier" is meant to model alternative / secondary
> identifiers for a spatial thing, that are preferably specified with HTTP
> URIs - for a more detailed explanation, see [1] and then [3].
>
> Coming to the issue you raise, Frans, I see it as a more general one on
> how identifiers (not only geo ones) are modelled in the RDF world.
>
> As far as I know, there is currently no consistent practice. One of the
> solutions is to define specific properties - as in Schema.org, or PRISM and
> the Bibo ontology in the publishing domain. On the other hand, ADMS
> provides a more generic approach via adms:identifier / adms:Identifier.
>
> IMHO, the point is what you want to use the identifier for. For instance,
> if I use DGGS just for specifying the location of a resource you can use it
> with locn:location / rdfs:seeAlso. Another case is whether, you want to
> know the identifier "type" - e.g., for a publication, I may need to know
> which is the DOI, ISBN, etc.
>
> Andrea
>
> ----
> [1]https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-locadd/2013Dec/0043.html
> [2]https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-locadd/2014Jan/0008.html
> [1]https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-locadd/2014Jan/0076.html
>
>
> On 18/11/2016 17:09, Frans Knibbe wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> A while ago we had a thread about Open Location Code
>> <https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-locadd/2015Aug/0000.html>,
>> which is an example of a Discrete Global Grid System (DGGS)
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrete_Global_Grid>. There is an OGC
>> Standards Working Group dedicated to the topic, the DGGS SWG
>> <http://www.opengeospatial.org/projects/groups/dggsswg>.
>>
>> I wonder if the Location Core Vocabulary is already equipped to work
>> with DGGS references. It is imaginable that people will want to use a
>> DGGS code to identify a location, perhaps as the only way to locate a
>> thing on Earth. Could such a code be expressed with LOCN?
>>
>> The most appropriate property for doing that seems to be the geographic
>> identifier <https://www.w3.org/ns/locn#rdfs:seeAlso>, for which
>> rdfs:seeAlso is taken to be the appropriate term. So would rdfs:seeAlso
>> be a good way to refer to a DGGS location? Two questions come to mind:
>>
>>  1. I have not studied all DGGS, but in the general case I think a DGGS
>>     reference consists of a code and an indication of a DGGS scheme,
>>     which is needed to decipher the code. Does that mean a DGGS
>>     reference needs two semantic elements? Or is it all right to assume
>>     that all DGGS references can always be expressed as a single URI
>>     (e.g. https://map.what3words.com/monorail.section.trespass
>>     <https://map.what3words.com/monorail.section.trespass>)?
>>  2. Will it be obvious to agents looking voor location data that
>>     rdf:seeAlso can be used for an indication of location? I mean,
>>     rdfs:seeAlso is also used for other types of relations (I realise
>>     that this is actually not only about DGGS, but about the
>>     discoverability of location information in general, where an
>>     unspecific term like rdfs:seeAlso is used).
>>
>> So what do you think?
>>
>> Greetings,
>> Frans
>>
>>
>>
> --
> Andrea Perego, Ph.D.
> Scientific / Technical Project Officer
> European Commission DG JRC
> Directorate B - Growth and Innovation
> Unit B6 - Digital Economy
> Via E. Fermi, 2749 - TP 262
> 21027 Ispra VA, Italy
>
> https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/
>
> ----
> The views expressed are purely those of the writer and may
> not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official
> position of the European Commission.
>