Re: Itemprop for person

The "fictional" category here is a bit ambiguous, if I interpret this 
discussion correctly. There are characters that appear in fiction 
(Sherlock Holmes); there are named personae that represent a person, 
such as pseudonyms ("Mark Twain"), and there are also personae that are 
not 1-to-1 with a person, such as two or more authors who write together 
under a single personal name. The former is fictional, the latter two 
are real. To my knowledge, library cataloging treats these two cases, 
invented fictional characters and personae that function as creators, as 
two different things. Only one of these is an Agent in the sense of 
dc:creator.

Finding a bright line to separate these two types of "persons" is not 
easy. Film librarians have told me that users expect to find "Mickey 
Mouse" or "Nemo" in the same way that they would find the names of 
actors in a film. And the "Lassie" example is a real poser since Lassie 
was both a character but also the "actor" in the films. Library 
cataloging only treats the fictional characters as subject headings (and 
topical, not personal subject headings).

I think one needs to follow the example of FOAF and say that if someone 
gives it a personal name then it is a person. That's the reverse of what 
has been the main approach so far, which is "if it's a person, then code 
it as a personal name."

kc

On 11/8/12 1:29 PM, Richard Wallis wrote:
> Assuming that you define a ghost as a Person, yes.
>
> Presuming that we lobbied successfully to add a Boolean 'isFictional'
> property to the Schema.org Thing class any other class that inherits from
> Thing could use it.
>
> Check out the description of the Person class <http://schema.org/Person> 'A
> person (alive, dead, undead, or fictional).' and you will see the five
> properties inherited from Thing listed at the top.
>
> ~Richard.
>
>
> On 08/11/2012 16:17, "Pilsk, Suzanne" <PilskS@si.edu> wrote:
>
>> This is the discussion that goes on in the library cataloging standards group
>> - that crops up when a new batch of catalogers are trained and are surprised
>> by the "rules".
>>
>>
>> Casper the friendly ghost - fictional to some, a real ghost to others.
>> Lassie - the dog - a real dog - actually played by multiple canines.
>>
>> I like the idea of a person is a person who is fictional vs taking a "fake
>> personality" and making it a "thing".
>>
>> We have a linked data project in the works with FAKE Botanists.
>>
>> So Richard, are you saying it would be person (is fictional) - under "Thing"?
>>
>> Suzanne
>>
>>
>> Suzanne C. Pilsk
>> Head, Metadata Unit
>> Smithsonian Institution Libraries
>> Connecting. Ideas. Information. You.
>> 10th & Constitution Avenues, NW, NH2207
>> MRC 154, P.O. Box 37012
>> Washington, DC 20013-7012
>> v. 202.633.1646
>> PilskS@si.edu
>> Please consider the environment before printing this email.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Richard Wallis [mailto:richard.wallis@oclc.org]
>> Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2012 4:15 PM
>> To: Dawson, Laura; public-schemabibex@w3.org
>> Subject: Re: Itemprop for person
>>
>> In the Schema.org world the 'Thing' class is what every other class inherits
>> properties from, so a Person, an Organization, a Book, a Product, are all
>> Things.
>>
>> ~Richard.
>>
>>
>> On 08/11/2012 16:12, "Dawson, Laura" <Laura.Dawson@bowker.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Is a fictional character a person or a thing?
>>>
>>> Oooh, philosophy! "What is the nature of a thing?"
>>>
>>> Laura Dawson
>>> Product Manager, Identifiers
>>> Bowker
>>> laura.dawson@bowker.com
>>> ________________________________________
>>> From: Richard Wallis [richard.wallis@oclc.org]
>>> Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2012 4:07 PM
>>> To: Dawson, Laura; public-schemabibex@w3.org
>>> Subject: Re: Itemprop for person
>>>
>>> The more I think about it, the more inclined I am to suggest that this
>>> is a suggested new property for 'Thing' - most any type of thing you
>>> describe could be fictional.
>>>
>>> ~Richard
>>>
>>>
>>> On 08/11/2012 15:55, "Dawson, Laura" <Laura.Dawson@bowker.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I like this very much!
>>>>
>>>> Laura Dawson
>>>> Product Manager, Identifiers
>>>> Bowker
>>>> laura.dawson@bowker.com
>>>> ________________________________________
>>>> From: Richard Wallis [richard.wallis@oclc.org]
>>>> Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2012 3:48 PM
>>>> To: Dawson, Laura; public-schemabibex@w3.org
>>>> Subject: Re: Itemprop for person
>>>>
>>>> Interesting thought ­ also applicable for Organization (such as
>>>> Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry)
>>>>
>>>> ~Richard.
>>>>
>>>> On 08/11/2012 15:35, "Dawson, Laura" <Laura.Dawson@bowker.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Could we possibly add an ³isfictional² tag? To identify characters
>>>> (such as Sherlock Holmes)? Some fictional characters will eventually
>>>> have ISNIs and we¹ll need to structure data around them.
>>>>
>>>> Laura Dawson
>>>> Product Manager, Identifiers
>>>> Bowker
>>>> Land: (908) 219-0082
>>>> Cell: (917) 770-6641
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>

-- 
Karen Coyle
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet

Received on Friday, 9 November 2012 21:25:48 UTC