Re: [Linking-open-data] Terminology Question concerning Web Architecture and Linked Data

Frank Manola wrote:
> Chris--
>
> I appreciate that we run into terminology conflicts all the time  
> around here, but I'd seriously suggest you look for some alternative  
> to "data item" for the concept in question.  An awful lot of people  
> (particularly those involved with databases) are used to seeing "data  
> item" refer to something like a property or attribute (like "name" or  
> "age").  More specifically, they're used to seeing records as  
> containing multiple data items (or their values).  From that point of  
> view, the sentence "When you interpret the Web of Data as a set of  
> interlinked databases, a data item would equal a record in a specific  
> database." looks particularly strange.  As I say, I understand the  
> inevitability of terminology conflicts, but ...?
>
> Cheers!
>
> --Frank
>
> On Jul 25, 2007, at 10:12 AM, Chris Bizer wrote:
>
>   
>> Hi Tim,
>>
>>     
>>> I can't think of a term for "the information which you get about  
>>> the thing identified by it  when you look up a URI" which works  
>>> for me.
>>>       
>>> It has of course the term "Representation" which connects an  
>>> Information Resource and the (metadata, bits) pair which you get  
>>> back, which is different.
>>>       
>> As we did not want to repeat the definition all over the tutorial,  
>> we ended up with a term called "data item".
>>
>> Within section 2.1 of the tutorial, we define the term as: "The  
>> term data items refers to the description of a non-information  
>> resource that a client obtains by dereferencing a specific URI that  
>> identifies this non-information resource." (http://sites.wiwiss.fu- 
>> berlin.de/suhl/bizer/pub/LinkedDataTutorial/#aliases)
>>
>> Note that the definition is a bit more specific than your sentence  
>> above, as it is restricted to non-information resources and not  
>> things in general (assuming that your term "thing" refers to non- 
>> information resources as well as information resources).
>>
>> We were also struggling to find a good word that matches the  
>> concept and have chosen "data item" in the end as it somehow  
>> relates to the overall term "Linked Data" and as we hope that  
>> people from the database community will understand the second  
>> informal definition of the term: "When you interpret the Web of  
>> Data as a set of interlinked databases, a data item would equal a  
>> record in a specific database."
>>
>>     
Frank,

A Data Item would represent an Entity in a Data Space (Database Model 
agnostic moniker for Database or Source of Data). Data Spaces are 
containers of Entities (or Entity Sets) defined by Class Properties that 
include: Attributes (Characteristics) and Associations (Relationships).

In the Semantic Data Web realm, URIs also identify individual Entities 
or Entity Sets typically referred to as non-information resources 
(preferably: Generic or Data Resources).

This is the position we take in our soon to be released paper about 
deploying Linked Data.

Kingsley
>> Cheers
>>
>> Chris
>>
>>     
>
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>   


-- 


Regards,

Kingsley Idehen	      Weblog: http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen
President & CEO 
OpenLink Software     Web: http://www.openlinksw.com

Received on Wednesday, 25 July 2007 18:07:29 UTC