[data-shapes] What do people want to know about when asking what Shapes target something (#582)

nicholascar has just created a new issue for https://github.com/w3c/data-shapes:

== What do people want to know about when asking what Shapes target something ==
If I load data and ontology into a Knowledge Graph as well as shapes that target things via `targetCass`, `targetNode` and so on, I can ask the question of any object: what targets you? The simple answer to this is just "a shape" but what do people _really_ want to know? 

Do they want to know that there's a collection of shapes that has a logic to it that targets the class/individual? This is likely, I think, as the collection of shapes might be declaring a defined profile of the ontology or data that the class/individual is in and knowing about it would help the user understand use of the class/individual.

This is an interpretation of `targetClass` etc. as a specialised kind of `prof:isProfileOf` declaration.

A solution to this issue could be any of the following:

* this is of no interest to anyone - do nothing
* conceptual or ontological alignment of `targetClass` etc. with `prof:isProfileOf`
    * this would require an alignment of groups of shapes with a `prof:Profile`
* something else not yet thought of

If something is to be done, the outcome will be advice/models etc in the _SHACL Profiling_ specification.

Please view or discuss this issue at https://github.com/w3c/data-shapes/issues/582 using your GitHub account


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Received on Monday, 22 September 2025 12:36:17 UTC