Re: naming properties and classes in RDF

From: Libby Miller <Libby.Miller@bristol.ac.uk>
Subject: naming properties and classes in RDF
Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 15:26:08 +0000 (GMT)

> 
> This has come up because we are trying to model relationships between
> people and their research interests in RDF, but it's a general problem
> that I've enountered: you want to name the property and the type it
> points to the same way, e.g.
> 
> <_:1> <rdf:type> <foaf:Person>
> <_:1> <foaf:research_interest> <_:2>
> <_:2> <rdf:type> <foaf:Research_interest>
> 
> (excuse the syntax if I have it wrong)
> 
> There is is clear redundancy here, as well as potential for
> confusion. Non RDF people tend to get rid of the redundancy by not
> having the links typed. RDF people have to have typed links. 
> 
> This must have  been tackled before...does anyone have any good
> advice?
> 
> cheers
> 
> libby

I'm not sure what you consider to be redundant here.  The only things that
are typed twice are <rdf:type>, <_:1>, and <_:2>.

Now there are some remedies that you might be interested in:

1/ Go to RDF/XML, which can remove some of the repetition, as in:

	<foaf:Person>
	  <foaf:research_interest>
	     <foaf:Research_interest>
	     </foaf:Research_interest>
	  </foaf:research_interest>
	</foaf:Person>
         
2/ Use range restrictions:

 <foaf:research_interest> <rdfs:range> <foaf:Research_interest>.
 <_:1> <rdf:type> <foaf:Person>.
 <_:1> <foaf:research_interest> <_:2>.

Peter F. Patel-Schneider

Received on Friday, 16 November 2001 11:18:24 UTC