Reuse

• From: Peter Williams <pezra@barelyenough.org>
• Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 12:02:07 -0600
• To: semantic-web@w3.org
• Message-ID: <AANLkTinKOxT2DF-YCy4cJCW0tTPxpQnCBVqtYx=HMZ19@mail.gmail.com>

I have a question regarding reuse in rdf vocabularies.

There seem to quite a few examples of vocabularies that reproduce
concepts that exist in other vocabularies.  For example,

 * dc:Agent and foaf:Agent
 * dc:LicenseDocument, cc:License, doap:License and probably half a
dozen other license classes
 * every thing in <http://www.w3.org/Submission/vcard-rdf/> and foaf.

I am sure i could keep going but you get my point.

What is considered best practice regarding reuse when designing new
vocabularies?  Should existing vocabularies be used?  If so under what
circumstances?  In which situations is defining classes and properties
that overlap with existing vocabularies advantageous?

When faced with multiple vocabularies describing the same thing how do
you choose which to reuse?

Peter

Received on Tuesday, 21 September 2010 18:02:35 UTC