Should we adopt SKOS?

Coming from the bibliographic world, specifically chairing  the Schema Bib
Extend Group[1] (who are building a consensus around a group of proposals
for Schema.org extensions for bibliographic resources, before submitting
them to this group), I am identifying situations where being able to model
things as SKOS[2] Concepts held in ConceptSchemes would make a great deal of
sense.

Working with colleagues we were finding ourselves almost reinventing the
SKOS model in [proposed] Schema.org vocabulary.

The introduction of External Enumerations[2] provided the ability to link to
lists of things controlled by external authorities.  An approach used widely
in the bibliographic and other domains ­ Library of Congress Subject
Headings[4] for example.  Many of these authorities are modelled using SKOS
(Concepts within ConceptSchemes) which introduces a consistent structured
way to describe relationships (broader/narrower), language specific
preferred labels, etc.

Sub-typing Intangible for Concept and ConceptScheme, it would be
comparatively easy to introduce SKOS into Schema.  The benefits I believe
being to add even more value to External Enumeration; providing a flexible
simple-ish yet standard pattern for marking up lists of concepts and their
interrelationships; provide a very easy way for already published
authoritative lists of concepts to adopt Schema.org and provide valuable
resources for all to connect with.

For instance VIAF[4] the Virtual International Authority File, a well used
source of URIs and authoritative names for people and organisations
(compiled and managed by the bibliographic community but used widely) is
already in SKOS.  SKOS is also used in many other domains.

I could see this adding value without significant impact on the rest of
Schema.

What do others think?

~Richard

--  
Richard Wallis
Technology Evangelist
OCLC



[1] http://www.w3.org/community/schemabibex/
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/skos-reference/
[3] http://www.w3.org/wiki/WebSchemas/ExternalEnumerations
[4] http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects.html