Re: using SKOS for controlled values for controlled vocabulary

On Oct 9, 2010, at 12:09 PM, Laskey, Ken wrote:

> 
> I am looking to define a controlled vocabulary that contains a list of description elements.  Values will be associated with the individual description elements, where some of values should be constrained by other controlled vocabularies. For example, my description set contains (length, weight, color) and color is to be constrained to (red, yellow, blue).
> 
> I was looking to represent this in SKOS.  My thoughts were:
> 
> -          The descriptive elements would each be SKOS Concepts
> 
> -          The set of description elements forming the controlled vocabulary would be a SKOS Concept Scheme
> 
> -          The controlled values would a SKOS Collection.
> 
> What I am missing is how to say a given description element in one controlled vocabulary, e.g. a SKOS Concept Scheme, can be constrained to a list of values, e.g. a SKOS Collection.

Depends what you mean by 'constrained' exactly. You can use OWL to define classes with particular elements, such as owl:oneOf( :red, :yellow, :blue), and then use this defined class in your scheme, eg as an rdfs:range. A suitable reasoner might then be able to tell you what you want to know. But all of these languages are descriptive rather than prescriptive, so if you go and use your property with, say, :green, you won't get an error message or an exception: the reasoner will just conclude that :green must be sameAs one of :red, :yellow or :blue. 

Pat

>  I was considering rdfs:range but I’m not sure that is applicable.
> 
> I was surprised that the SKOS examples I found on the Web don’t mention this.  Am I missing something fundamental?
> 
> Ken
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Dr. Kenneth Laskey
> MITRE Corporation, M/S H305              phone: 703-983-7934
> 7515 Colshire Drive                             fax:      703-983-1379
> McLean VA 22102-7508
> 
> 
> 

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Received on Saturday, 9 October 2010 19:40:55 UTC