Re: Geonames enters the Semantic Web

Bernard,

The W3C Semantic Web Deployment WG [1] which started its 
work last week is chartered to standardize SKOS. I was 
wondering whether your work on Geonames has led you to 
formulate particular requirements for SKOS. Any input from 
you would be extremely helpful!

Best,
Guus

> Subject:     Geonames enters the Semantic Web
> Resent-Date:     Fri, 13 Oct 2006 22:16:18 +0000
> Resent-From:     semantic-web@w3.org
> Date:     Sat, 14 Oct 2006 00:16:14 +0200
> From:     Bernard vatant <bernard.vatant@mondeca.com>
> To:     Semantic Web <semantic-web@w3.org>
> CC:     Marc <marc@geonames.org>
> 
> 
> 
> Hello all
> 
> I'm very pleased to announce that, through a quick and efficient 
> collaboration with Marc (in cc), the 6 million and growing geographical 
> features in the data base of Geonames [1] are now described by a OWL 
> ontology [2], and the RDF description of each instance, including names, 
> type, of course geolocation elements, is now available through Geonames 
> Webservice,  adding to an already impressive pack of  services [3].
> The ontology is very simple, and leverage elements of the wgs84_pos 
> vocabulary [4]. The feature types are described using a simple SKOS 
> vocabulary, which has been embedded in the OWL ontology.
> 
> If you add that, thanks to Google Maps API, the geonames features can be 
> created and edited through a wiki-like interface [5], this as Web 2.0 as 
> can be.
> 
> Comments welcome, either here or in the Geonames forum [6]
> 
> Bernard
> 
> 
> [1] http://www.geonames.org
> [2] http://www.geonames.org/ontology/
> [3] http://www.geonames.org/export/
> [4] http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/#vocabulary
> [5] http://www.geonames.org/recent-changes/
> [6] http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/156.page
> 

-- 
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Computer Science
De Boelelaan 1081a, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
T: +31 20 598 7739/7718; F: +31 84 712 1446
Home page: http://www.cs.vu.nl/~guus/

Received on Sunday, 15 October 2006 19:37:47 UTC