Re: Datatypes with no (cool) URI

On 03/04/12 16:38, Sarven Capadisli wrote:
> 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
>

I was going to suggest that :)

Actually looking at that I see that I've failed to datatype the 
skos:notation entries in those code lists. There should probably be a 
http://purl.org/linked-data/sdmx/2009/code#sexDT datatype to go with the 
notation on those skos:Concepts.

Phil, if that's important to you then raise it as an issue on the 
tracker [1] and, if no one objects, then I can get it fixed.

Dave

[1] http://code.google.com/p/publishing-statistical-data/issues/list

Received on Tuesday, 3 April 2012 17:30:35 UTC