Re: adding hypermedia to spatial data best practices

Hi,

> In linked data, the meaning of links is always explicit and 
> discoverable-- that is the fundamental reason for the use of formal 
> vocabularies. This also applies to owl:sameAs and rdf:seeAlso, 
> although quite purposefully, rdfs:seeAlso has rather weak semantics. 
> On the other hand, owl:sameAs has very tight semantics, but is very 
> commonly used in a way that violates those semantics.

Agreed, but let's not forget that only a very few of them such as 
owl:sameAs and rdfs:subProperty have a formal semantics. This makes a 
big compared to seeAlso and many popular SKOS relations.

> I doubt we can do much about the latter in the broader linked data 
> world, unfortunately.

Maybe we can; our work and recommendations will have a broad visibility.


> Curious as to how we might be able to "late-bind" to upper ontologies, 
> and dissapointed there isnt a Use Case proposed that deals with two 
> bodies of data implemented as RDF using different upper ontology 
> choices. It seems to be this is something we really dont have a good 
> solution to talk to yet. I could try to write such a Use Case, but 
> i'll probably get the terminology all wrong and offend everyone (again).

IMHO, patterns largely replace the need for upper ontologies and I would 
rather not define alignments to such top-level ontologies anymore.

Best,
Krzysztof


On 07/30/2015 12:00 AM, Rob Atkinson wrote:
>
> I would agree there is a need to actually verify the "goodness" of 
> some "best practices" - rather than just assert that utopia is coming.
> We need to walk semantics, not talk it, now. When something that is 
> convincing to us, and can be shown to be tractable to developers is 
> available, then the talk can resume.
> I dont think we need to throw out formal ontologies to get convenient 
> JSON data - we should use the ontologies behind the scenes to make 
> sure we dont get an infinite number of incompatible json renderings of 
> the same data!
> Likewise, we should not throw out existing data models and standards 
> governance when building those ontologies. In many cases we simply cant.
> Curious as to how we might be able to "late-bind" to upper ontologies, 
> and dissapointed there isnt a Use Case proposed that deals with two 
> bodies of data implemented as RDF using different upper ontology 
> choices. It seems to be this is something we really dont have a good 
> solution to talk to yet. I could try to write such a Use Case, but 
> i'll probably get the terminology all wrong and offend everyone (again).
>
>
> On Thu, 30 Jul 2015 at 15:39 <Simon.Cox@csiro.au> wrote:
>
>     Don’t get me wrong – precise link semantics is important. That’s
>     why I prefer time:hasTRS and geom:hasCRS to dct:conformsTo (the
>     latter was suggested on a dcat list in the last week).
>
>     Maybe it’s the people I’ve been meeting recently, but I’m finding
>     it still necessary to establish the more basic principles
>     (fine-grained well-managed URIs, hypertext). Mention of RDF and
>     semantic web technologies too esoteric for most web developers,
>     who only know JSON. Depending on the audience, a softly-softly
>     approach is essential, so we must calibrate our discourse overall
>     so we don’t overwhelm them until they are ready. We should
>     practice amongst ourselves, and not gratuitously talk semantics
>     until it is specifically required.
>
>     I’m basically supporting Erik’s position – let’s make sure
>     hypertext is on the table first.
>
>     Simon
>
>     *From:*Rob Atkinson [mailto:rob@metalinkage.com.au
>     <mailto:rob@metalinkage.com.au>]
>     *Sent:* Thursday, 30 July 2015 1:38 PM
>     *To:* Kerry Taylor <Kerry.Taylor@acm.org
>     <mailto:Kerry.Taylor@acm.org>>; Rob Atkinson
>     <rob@metalinkage.com.au <mailto:rob@metalinkage.com.au>>
>     *Cc:* Cox, Simon (L&W, Highett) <Simon.Cox@csiro.au>;
>     dret@berkeley.edu <mailto:dret@berkeley.edu>;
>     jeremy.tandy@gmail.com <mailto:jeremy.tandy@gmail.com>;
>     public-sdw-comments@w3.org <mailto:public-sdw-comments@w3.org>;
>     eparsons@google.com <mailto:eparsons@google.com>
>
>
>     *Subject:* Re: adding hypermedia to spatial data best practices
>
>     Do agree - i will submit a Use Case from the Hydrology domain
>     where the link semantics are critical, and not supported by an
>     existing vocabulary.
>
>     my thinking is that best practices relate to the use of RDF
>     because we can have flexibility, and make things explicit, but
>     then we need to choose one or all of:
>
>     1) strong but generalised semantics - for example spatial
>     relationships
>
>     2) strong and domain-specific semantics required to process data
>     in the context of the domain - for example a relationship between
>     a building and a property, or between a hydrological catchment and
>     an upstream catchment
>
>     3) weak semantics (where human mediation is probably required -
>     but i suppose deeper discovery of resources could be envisioned)
>
>     hopefully a best practice can discuss the pros and cons of each of
>     these, provide examples and importantly shed some light on the
>     practicalities of governance of such vocabularies.  If we can
>     indeed  fit this neatly into the existing 5-star system it should
>     provide a greater sense of how and why "linked data" applies to
>     geospatial information, and we can then perhaps look at the
>     specific case of hypermedia in this context - is it a weak
>     semantics for the link - or is it in fact supposed to support some
>     automated traversal, and if so what is required to do so.
>
>     Rob
>
>     On Thu, 30 Jul 2015 at 12:55 Kerry Taylor <Kerry.Taylor@acm.org
>     <mailto:Kerry.Taylor@acm.org>> wrote:
>
>         All,
>
>         In linked data, the meaning of links is always explicit and
>         discoverable-- that is the fundamental reason for the use of
>         formal vocabularies. This also applies to owl:sameAs and
>         rdf:seeAlso, although quite purposefully, rdfs:seeAlso has
>         rather weak semantics. On the other hand, owl:sameAs has very
>         tight semantics, but is very commonly used in a way that
>         violates those semantics. I doubt we can do much about the
>         latter in the broader linked data world, unfortunately.
>
>         What we *can* do in this group is to advise on using linking
>          vocabulary that is well-defined and, if we cannot find such
>         vocabulary already,  to create and define whatever is missing
>         in the spatial space( did I really write that?).   I did not
>         see much in our use cases that suggests new vocabulary is
>         needed, except perhaps in the area of informal spatial
>         relations, where there is no geometry and maybe even very
>         fuzzy location.  I hope that our best practice advice will
>         serve to reduce confusion and encourage publishers to respect
>         the intended semantics of the vocabulary we advise.
>
>         I admit to confusion about what 'hyperlinks' and related
>         'hypermedia' means in this discussion. Is it about links
>         between remote resources only?  Or about links within "media"
>         like video, interactive maps etc ( stuff that is not text or
>         data).? In any case linked data is all about typed links , ie
>         links with meaning, whether internal or remote.
>
>         The fifth star does not change the meaning of the links at
>         all,  it only asks publishers to explicitly include some links
>         to remote resources
>
>         -Kerry
>
>
>         On 29 Jul 2015, at 3:38 pm, Rob Atkinson
>         <rob@metalinkage.com.au <mailto:rob@metalinkage.com.au>> wrote:
>
>             Personally, I think the relationship between "data" and
>             "hyperlinking" needs some greater care. In a
>             self-contained database, relationships are a first-class
>             concern - however there is a prevalence in the linked data
>             world of using ad-hoc approaches to generating hyperlinks
>             - for example using owl:sameAs to link to an interactive
>             mapping application via geographical coordinates. using
>             very general link semantics "rdf:seeAlso" for links to
>             related data is another common pattern. The lack of a
>             demonstrably good practice is fairly hard to reconcile
>             with any potential to be able to use such links in any
>             automated fashion, so the development of best practice
>             discussion and exemplar resources is an important step to
>             take. fortunately, the Linked Data web is still tiny
>             compared to the problem space, so there is not a huge
>             amount invested in sub-optimal approaches.
>
>             I think a "star" that matters is missing - which is to
>             make the meaning of hyperlinks explicit and discoverable -
>             this is far more useful than putting the data into RDF per
>             se, but one could argue thats the underlying intent of
>             using RDF, in that such links have URIs for link
>             predicates - and there is an implication regarding what
>             those URIs should resolve to.  Maybe there is some good
>             practice out there somewhere of how to hyperlink without
>             losing information or adding more noise to the system we
>             could point to - but I haven't seen one in the geospatial
>             domain.
>
>             Rob Atkinson
>
>             On Wed, 29 Jul 2015 at 11:11 <Simon.Cox@csiro.au
>             <mailto:Simon.Cox@csiro.au>> wrote:
>
>                 Hmm. That's interesting that you mention the coupling
>                 of 'specific model' with 'linked data'. We must be
>                 careful about bringing the 5th-star into play too
>                 soon. Linked data relies first on (i) stable,
>                 resolvable URIs, (ii) open formats, and (iii)
>                 hyperlinks, so let's make sure that message gets
>                 across first and is not buried in premature focus on
>                 semantics.
>
>                 -----Original Message-----
>                 From: Erik Wilde [mailto:dret@berkeley.edu
>                 <mailto:dret@berkeley.edu>]
>                 Sent: Wednesday, 29 July 2015 9:53 AM
>                 To: Jeremy Tandy; public-sdw-comments@w3.org
>                 <mailto:public-sdw-comments@w3.org>
>                 Cc: Ed Parsons
>                 Subject: Re: adding hypermedia to spatial data best
>                 practices
>
>                 hello jeremy.
>
>                 On 2015-07-27 02:44, Jeremy Tandy wrote:
>                 > As one of the editors for the Best Practice doc, I
>                 will read through
>                 > the two resources you cite in the hope that there
>                 will be less for me
>                 > to write :-) ... seriously though, I will review and
>                 match your work
>                 > against our formative requirements. Holiday season
>                 is upon us so rate
>                 > of progress might be a little slow ...
>
>                 no worries. and seriously from my side, i'd love to
>                 get feedback and even requests for more detailed
>                 content for both resources. i see a lo0t on confusion
>                 in the spectrum between linked data (which mandates a
>                 specific model that not everybody necessarily wants to
>                 use) and no guidance in which case the hypermedia
>                 aspect (imho the biggest value proposition of the web
>                 by far, when combined with REST's uniform interface
>                 constraint) often gets forgotten. thus my attempt to
>                 talk about "web data" that focuses on what makes the
>                 web valuable, without prescribing a specific path to
>                 realize that value.
>
>                 thanks and cheers,
>
>                 dret.
>
>                 --
>                 erik wilde | mailto:dret@berkeley.edu
>                 <mailto:dret@berkeley.edu> - tel:+1-510-2061079 |
>                             | UC Berkeley  - School of Information
>                 (ISchool) |
>                             | http://dret.net/netdret
>                 http://twitter.com/dret |
>


-- 
Krzysztof Janowicz

Geography Department, University of California, Santa Barbara
4830 Ellison Hall, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060

Email: jano@geog.ucsb.edu
Webpage: http://geog.ucsb.edu/~jano/
Semantic Web Journal: http://www.semantic-web-journal.net

Received on Thursday, 30 July 2015 18:16:07 UTC