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linked-statistics / xkos

A SKOS extension for statistical classifications
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xkos:covers amd xkos:classifiedUnder #30

Closed FranckCo closed 8 years ago

FranckCo commented 9 years ago

This is one of the comments made by Antoine Isaac (see issue #26):

xkos:covers amd xkos:classifiedUnder. Their semantics are not really clear to me. More precisely: couldn't one of them or both be replaced by dcterms:subject or foaf:topic or foaf:primaryTopic?

FranckCo commented 9 years ago

The domain of foaf:topic and foaf:primaryTopic is foaf:Document so, as the FOAF specification puts it, “having this property implies being a Document”. On the other hand, xkos:covers applies to classification schemes or levels, which are abstract construction and cannot be assimilated to documents as defined in FOAF.

dcterms:subject has no restriction on its domain or range, but we feel that its semantics (“The topic of the resource”) is not exactly what is needed for ‘covers’ and ‘classified under’.

xkos:covers links a classification scheme (or its levels) to a general notion describing the specific concepts classified by the classification. For example, the NACE covers the field of economic activity, the ISCO covers the field of occupations, etc. But we cannot really say that economic activity is the subject or topic of the NACE. On the other hand, dcterms properties are intentionally general in order to allow their reuse in other vocabularies, so it could be a good idea to make xkos:covers a sub-property of dcterms:subject.

The case of xkos:classifiedUnder is much more straightforward. This property says for example that a specific activity (‘extraction of oil shale’) is classified in a given position of the NACE (06.10 – Extraction of crude petroleum). It would not be appropriate to state that the 06.10 class of the NACE is the subject of the extraction of oil shale activity.

FranckCo commented 8 years ago

No additional comments made on the subject of making xkos:cover a subproperty of dcterms:subject, so I will follow my own inclination and not make it.