RE: RDF schemas for thesauri and simple KOS *pre-release*

Hi Alistair

Here are some comments, they are general preferences about good schema
design rather than specific comments about these schemas but I think they
apply here, hope they are useful?

1. using rdfs:label in the schemas would enable clients like Haystack to
automatically render RDF that uses this schema in a more pleasing way.

2. adding appropriate rdfs:comments would mean that a human reader would
have a better chance of understanding the schema without having to refer to
a specification document. You have included a seeAlso link which is good,
but my preference would be to include this information at least a subset of
this information in the schema if possible.

In SIMILE, we envision a future where we have repositories of schemas that
uses search and browse in order to re-use schema elements to create
application profiles for specific tasks. Therefore adding human readable
information to schemas is a valuable, because it will simplify the searching
and browsing task. Unfortunately, including only minimal machine readable
information makes it more difficult to make an informed decision about
whether elements are reusable in a particular task. 

This is probably outside the scope of both of our projects, but perhaps
there is a need for a consistent way of including this information in
schemas, so that it can be styled / presented efficiently to human readers?

In addition, the other thing which I would help my understanding is a
description of how you expect these thesauri to be processed? For example,
if we queried a knowledge base for all instances of term a, would we also
expect to get back instances of term of which is a narrower version of a?
Perhaps you have such a description already - if so could you point me at
it?

best regards,

Dr Mark H. Butler
Research Scientist                HP Labs Bristol
mark-h_butler@hp.com
Internet: http://www-uk.hpl.hp.com/people/marbut/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Miles, AJ (Alistair) [mailto:A.J.Miles@rl.ac.uk]
> Sent: 25 November 2003 13:46
> To: 'www-rdf-dspace@w3.org'
> Subject: RDF schemas for thesauri and simple KOS *pre-release*
> 
> 
> 
> > Dear all,
> > 
> > I offer these schemas as a pre-release, to get some initial 
> feedback and
> > response on their design.
> > 
> > SKOS-Core <http://www.w3c.rl.ac.uk/2003/11/21-skos-core> 
> (RDF schema for
> > encoding thesauri and other simple knowledge organisation 
> systems e.g.
> > taxonomies and classification schemes.)
> > 
> > SKOS-Mapping 
> <http://www.w3c.rl.ac.uk/2003/11/21-skos-mapping> (RDF schema
> > for expressing mappings between concepts from different thesauri.)
> > 
> > This work is ongoing in the context of the SWAD-Europe 
> project [1] [2].
> > 
> > Yours,
> > 
> > Alistair Miles.
> > 
> > [1] SWAD-Europe Thesaurus Activity
> > <http://www.w3c.rl.ac.uk/SWAD/thesaurus.html>
> > [2] Semantic Web Advanced Development for Europe project
> > <http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Europe/>
> > 
> > 
> > CCLRC - Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
> > Building R1 Room 1.60
> > Fermi Avenue
> > Chilton
> > Didcot
> > Oxfordshire OX11 0QX
> > United Kingdom
> > 
> > Email:        a.j.miles@rl.ac.uk
> > Telephone: +44 (0)1235 445440
> > 
> > 
>

Received on Wednesday, 26 November 2003 10:12:15 UTC