Re: Use Case: "Expressing FRBR Descriptions using Named Graphs"

Hi all,

On Apr 10, 2012, at 09:14, Ivan Herman wrote:

> Just my immediate reaction on this...
> 
> What this use case seem to demand is some possibilities to manipulate graphs explicitly, that is to create the union (in the RDF) sense of graphs (that is the way I interpret this 'Frame' concept).
> 
> The question is whether this is left in the application domain, via some sort of API on the RDF environment (the RDF environment I know the most, namely RDFLib, has operations to create the union of graphs)

Leaving it in the application domain was Tom's intent, I believe.  In any case, I believe that graph union rules /could/ be defined at the RDF level but /should/ probably be dealt with above RDF.

> or whether we need some declarative/syntax means for that.

Hmm, I hope we don't need a special syntax for just this use case.

Regards,
Dave


> Something like (using Tom's pseudo-code):
> 
> <u> { P has_title "Moby-Dick, or, the Whale"; P has_as_subject "Whaling Ships -- Fiction" }
> <v> { Q has_language "English" ; Q has_extent "213711 words" }
> { 
>  <f> rdf:unionOf ( <u> <v> ) .
> }
> 
> or, alternatively, some syntax that explicitly says that the Default Graph includes the union of all those graphs, but I am not sure what syntax one would use for that...
> 
> Ivan
> 
> 
> 
> On Apr 10, 2012, at 15:05 , Ivan Herman wrote:
> 
>> I am not sure all of you read the RDF Comment mailing list, so, to be on the safe side, I forward this mail...
>> 
>> Ivan
>> 
>> Begin forwarded message:
>> 
>>> Resent-From: public-rdf-comments@w3.org
>>> From: Thomas Baker <tom@tombaker.org>
>>> Subject: Use Case: "Expressing FRBR Descriptions using Named Graphs"
>>> Date: April 4, 2012 23:44:38 GMT+02:00
>>> To: public-rdf-comments@w3.org
>>> Cc: Ron Murray <kandroma1@me.com>, Barbara Tillett <btil@loc.gov>, Gordon Dunsire <gordon@gordondunsire.com>
>>> Archived-At: <http://www.w3.org/mid/20120404214438.GA47236@julius>
>>> List-Id: <public-rdf-comments.w3.org>
>>> 
>>> Dear Members of the RDF Working Group,
>>> 
>>> The following text describes a proposed use case for Named Graphs.  For anyone
>>> unfamiliar with "FRBR," the Wikipedia page provides a quick overview [1].  FRBR
>>> is the foundation for RDA (Resource Description and Access), the new cataloging
>>> standard towards which major libraries are moving [2].
>>> 
>>> This proposal for conceptualizing FRBR entities as Named Graphs is based on
>>> work by Ronald Murray and Barbara Tillett of the Library of Congress.  These
>>> ideas are illustrated in a visually very engaging slide deck, "From Moby-Dick
>>> to Mash-Ups: Thinking About Bibliographic Networks" [3].  Gordon Dunsire has
>>> also contributed to the proposal.
>>> 
>>> We would be especially grateful for feedback in advance of an event on 27 April
>>> at the British Library [4].  The event will mark the fifth anniversary of a
>>> meeting in May 2007 which resulted in a recommendation that RDA and FRBR be
>>> expressed in RDF [5].  
>>> 
>>> The Named Graph approach outlined below is a relatively new contribution to
>>> this ongoing thread. As the approach depends on the resolution of issues still
>>> under discussion in the RDF Working Group, we would much appreciate your
>>> comments or suggestions.
>>> 
>>> Tom
>>> 
>>> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_Requirements_for_Bibliographic_Records
>>> [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Description_and_Access
>>> [3] http://www.slideshare.net/RonMurray/from-mobydick-to-mashups
>>> [4] http://dcevents.dublincore.org/index.php/BibData/fyo
>>> [5] http://www.bl.uk/bibliographic/meeting.html
>>> 
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Expressing FRBR Descriptions using Named Graphs: a proposal
>>> 
>>> W3C's Resource Description Framework (RDF) Working Group [1] is currently
>>> discussing proposals for supporting "named graphs" to meet a wide range of use
>>> cases [2], possibly by extending the TriG Named Graph and RDF Data Language
>>> [3,4].  This proposal outlines how Named Graphs might be used in resource
>>> descriptions that are based on the so-called WEMI entities (Work, Expression,
>>> Manifestation, and Item) of the IFLA model Functional Requirements for
>>> Bibliographic Records (FRBR) [5].
>>> 
>>> This proposal views descriptions of WEMI entities as bundles of statements made
>>> at different levels of abstraction, from the most concrete Item level to the
>>> most abstract Work level.  Multi-level WEMI descriptions specify the
>>> characteristics that any given Item shares with other Items at the level of
>>> Work, Expression, and Manifestation.  Ideally, it would be possible to
>>> incorporate descriptions of resources at the Work, Expression, and
>>> Manifestation levels, maintained in a distributed manner by various
>>> institutions, into the local descriptions of particular Items.  
>>> 
>>> Consider the following four Named Graphs, each of which is identified with a
>>> URI (A, B, C, or D) and contains two statements:
>>> 
>>> -- Named Graph D, a Work-level description
>>>  P has_title         "Moby-Dick, or, the Whale"
>>>  P has_as_subject    "Whaling Ships -- Fiction"
>>> 
>>> -- Named Graph C, an Expression-level description
>>>  Q has_language      "English"                
>>>  Q has_extent        "213711 words"           
>>> 
>>> -- Named Graph B, a Manifestation-level description
>>>  R has_edition_issue "First Edition"         
>>>  R has_pub_place     "New York NY"
>>> 
>>> -- Named Graph A, an Item-level description
>>>  X has_OAI_ID        http://hdl.handle.net/10150/16470
>>>  X has_condition     "yellowing at page edges"
>>> 
>>> One might bind these four chunks into a single description by "including" them
>>> into a common "frame":
>>> 
>>>  FrameL includes   NamedGraphA
>>>  FrameL includes   NamedGraphB
>>>  FrameL includes   NamedGraphC
>>>  FrameL includes   NamedGraphD
>>> 
>>> One would then want to infer that the Item in hand (described by the statements
>>> in Named Graph A) is _also_ described by statements in the Named Graphs at the
>>> more abstract levels of Work, Expression, and Manifestation included in the
>>> same Frame.  In other words, if X is the URI of the Item in hand, one would
>>> like to infer:
>>> 
>>>  X has_title         "Moby-Dick, or, the Whale"
>>>  X has_as_subject    "Whaling Ships -- Fiction"
>>>  X has_language      "English"                
>>>  X has_extent        "213711 words"           
>>>  X has_edition_issue "First Edition"          
>>>  X has_pub_place     "New York NY             
>>>  X has_OAI_ID        http://hdl.handle.net/10150/16470
>>>  X has_condition     "yellowing at page edges"
>>> 
>>> Discussion
>>> 
>>> 1. Formal notions of Frame, and of "inclusion" in a Frame, would need to be
>>> defined for the general case.
>>> 
>>> 2. Formal rules would be needed for interpreting Frames with different
>>> sets of FRBR descriptions, e.g., for the simple case above, in which
>>> statements from Work-, Expression-, and Manifestation-level descriptions are
>>> interpreted as applying to the Item.
>>> 
>>> 3. Given the complex, even chaotic nature of the Web, flexibility to 
>>> implement this approach in a partial manner is a critical design criterion.
>>> Particular WEMI descriptions should be useful in a Linked Data environment
>>> independently of particular Frames and, ideally, even in the absence of an
>>> understanding of Frames and Inclusion (see 1 above) or of the particular
>>> rules applicable to FRBR (see 2 above).  In the example described above, the
>>> statements in Named Graph D about Work P would be useful independently of
>>> FrameL, which (according to rules yet to be defined) would merely apply
>>> those statements, additionally, to Item X.
>>> 
>>> References
>>> 
>>> [1] http://www.w3.org/2011/rdf-wg/
>>> [2] http://www.w3.org/2011/rdf-wg/wiki/Why_Graphs
>>> [3] http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/rdf/raw-file/default/trig/index.html#
>>> [4] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-rdf-wg/2012Mar/0123.html
>>> [5] http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/frbr/frbr.htm
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Tom Baker <tom@tombaker.org>
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ----
>> Ivan Herman, W3C Semantic Web Activity Lead
>> Home: http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/
>> mobile: +31-641044153
>> FOAF: http://www.ivan-herman.net/foaf.rdf
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> ----
> Ivan Herman, W3C Semantic Web Activity Lead
> Home: http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/
> mobile: +31-641044153
> FOAF: http://www.ivan-herman.net/foaf.rdf
> 
> 
> 
> 
>

Received on Tuesday, 10 April 2012 13:34:44 UTC