Re: Historical events

On 03/06/18 00:07, Muri, Allison wrote:
> Maybe this won’t generate much interest, but I have obtained my own 
> fork of the Schema.org <http://Schema.org> GitHub repository and also 
> have set up a Google App Engine project to be share it publicly. I 
> take Phil Barker’s point that one should “first make sure that 
> schema.org <http://schema.org> is the best vocabulary for this type of 
> information, e.g. by thinking about use cases that fall within the 
> scope of its mission.” I really don’t know the answer to that. 
> Hopefully I can generate more conversations about this in the future. 
> Thank you, Phil, for the links to Richard Wallis’ blog posts and videos.
>
You're welcome.

This discussion has already lead to a suggested improvement in 
schema.org, so there is clearly some overlap between your interests and 
its scope. I like Richard's parallel to TouristAttraction.

I think there are also issues around Periods, Events and historical 
reference points that could be unpicked.

> Regarding “they already know those differences,” I think search 
> engines would /not/ know that “Ætna groan” in the passage below refers 
> to the 1669 eruption of Mount Etna, a “NaturalEvent” (as opposed to a 
> satiric reference to a really firey, angry queen at her coronation) 
> without markup:
>
>     Nor with more heavy strokes could Ætna groan,
>     When Vulcan forg’d the Arms for Thetis’ Son.
>
>     —Poems on Several Subjects, by Stephen Duck (1730)
>
>

This is a good use case. This probably isn't the right forum to go into 
details of addressing it, but by way of illustrating a point ... [I 
think you mentioned microdata at one point]

Nor with more heavy strokes could
   <span itemprop="mentions" itemscope
         itemtype="Event"
         name="1669 eruption of Mount Etna">
      Ætna groan
      <link itemprop="sameas" href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2411998">
      <meta itemprop="location" content="Mount Etna">
      <meta itemprop="startDate" content="1669-03-08">
   <span>,

When Vulcan forg’d the Arms for Thetis’ Son

Follow the sameas URL and you will see that I cheated, but adding the 
relevant eruption would be possible, and what I did link to illustrates 
how machine readable information can be provided beyond the schema.org 
markup. I have been minimal in my description of the event in the inline 
schema.org markup, there could be a lot more there if required/useful.

Phil

-- 

Phil Barker <http://people.pjjk.net/phil>. http://people.pjjk.net/phil
PJJK Limited <https://www.pjjk.co.uk>: technology to enhance learning; 
information systems for education.
CETIS LLP <https://www.cetis.org.uk>: a cooperative consultancy for 
innovation in education technology.

PJJK Limited is registered in Scotland as a private limited company, 
number SC569282.
CETIS is a co-operative limited liability partnership, registered in 
England number OC399090