Re: Datatypes with no (cool) URI

On 12-04-03 02:33 PM, Phil Archer wrote:
> I'm hoping for a bit of advice and rather than talk in the usual generic
> terms I'll use the actual example I'm working on.
>
> I want to define the best way to record a person's sex (this is related
> to the W3C GLD WG's forthcoming spec on describing a Person [1]). To
> encourage interoperability, we want people to use a controlled
> vocabulary and there are several that cover this topic.
>
> ISO 5218 has:
> 0 = not known;
> 1 = male;
> 2 = female;
> 9 = not applicable.
>
> and Eurostat offers
> F = female
> M = male
> OTH = other
> UNK = unknown
> NAP = not applicable
>
> IMO, the spec should not dictate which one to use (there are others too
> of course). What I *do* want to do though is to encourage publishers to
> state which vocabulary they're using. Sounds like a job for a datatype -
> and for that you need a URI for the vocabulary. Something like:
>
> schema:gender "1"^^<http://iso.org/5218/> .
>
> Except I made that iso.org URI up. The actual URI for it is
> http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=36266
> (or rather, that's the page about the spec but that's a side issue for
> now).
>
> That URI is just horrible and certainly not a 'cool URI'. The Eurostat
> one is no better.
>
> Does the datatype URI have to resolve to anything (in theory no, but in
> practice? Would a URN be appropriate?
>
> Given that the identifier for the ISO standard is "ISO/IEC 5218:2004"
> how about urn:iso/iec:5218:2005?
>
> For Eurostat, the internal identifier for the vocabulary is "SCL - Sex"
> (standard code list) so would urn:eurostat:scl:sex be appropriate?
>
> Anyone done anything like this in the real world?
>
> All advice gratefully received.
>
> Thank you
>
> Phil.
>
>
> [1] https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/gld/raw-file/default/people/index.html
>

Perhaps I'm looking at your problem the wrong way, but have you looked 
at the SDMX Concepts:

http://purl.org/linked-data/sdmx/2009/code#sex

-Sarven

Received on Tuesday, 3 April 2012 15:39:24 UTC