OASIS Topic Maps Published Subjects TC
Recommendations
for Documentation of Published Subjects
Version 0.2 - January
19, 2002
Latest version : http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tm-pubsubj/docs/recommendations/psdoc.htm
Editor: Bernard Vatant
- Added notes and minor modifications - January 27
Status
of this document :
Working Draft
This
recommendation addresses the "shall, should, may" of :
TC Requirements for Documentation of
Published Subjects
1 - Statement of Purpose
The OASIS Topic Maps Published Subjects Technical Committee has been set
forth to help application of Topic Maps specification ISO
13250, by providing recommendations for documentation, management and
use of published subjects. The general intention behind published subjects
is that topic maps interoperability needs non-ambiguous definition of subjects
(represented
by topics),
that should be provided by trustable publishers, in resources available
through stable URIs.
Those addressable resources, hereafter called "subject definition resources"
will provide human-understandable and non-ambiguous definition of subjects,
whereas their URIs will provide stable identifiers fit for computer processing,
topic maps interoperability and merging, and many other foreseeable semantic
applications.
The
purpose of this document is to provide recommendations for the structure
and content of published subjects documentation. Those recommendations
are aimed at publishers of ontologies, classifications, taxonomies, thesaurus,
registries, catalogues, data bases ... to provide those publishers with
efficient ways to make their legacy available as published subjects documentation,
and therefore usable by topic maps and other semantic applications.
2 - Glossary
Lars
Marius Garshol: "We need more explanations there ..."
See : Published Subjects Terminology
The
following terms and concepts will be used in this document and further
TC recommendations.
Some of them are already defined and used by ISO 13250. Nevertheless,
the TC proposes some modifications to clarify some of them and their relationships
with new ones, and will send those proposals to ISO JTC1/SW34 for relevant
revision and extension of ISO 13250 terminology. Both current ISO 13250
definition and PubSubj TC proposal are given when necessary.
- published
subject
as defined by ISO 13250 XTM
A published subject is any subject for which a subject indicator has
been made available for public use and is accessible online via a URI.
definition proposal
A published subject is any subject for which at least one subject definition
resource has been made available in a published subject documentation.
-
published subject documentation
definition
proposal
A published subject documentation is a resource providing access to
a structured set of subject definition resources.
- publisher
as defined by Dublin Core
The publisher of a resource is an entity responsible for making it available.
-
subject
as defined by ISO 13250 XTM
A subject is anything whatsoever, regardless of whether it exists or
has any other specific characteristics, about which anything whatsoever
may be asserted by any means whatsoever.
-
subject definition resource
definition proposal
A subject definition resource is an addressable resource that has been
intended by its publisher to provide an indication of the nature of
a subject. A subject definition resource is not required to use any
particular syntax, but should provide human users with clear understanding
of what the subject is. It may also be computer-processable.
- subject
indicator
as defined by ISO 13250 XTM
A subject indicator is a resource that is intended by the topic map
author to provide a positive, unambiguous indication of the identity
of a subject.
definition proposal
A subject indicator is a resource that is intended by the
topic map author to provide a positive, unambiguous indication of the
identity of a subject.
Any resource can therefore become a subject indicator by being referred
to as such by some topic in some topic map, whether it has been intended
or not by its publisher to be a subject definition resource.
-
subject indicator reference
as defined by ISO 13250 XTM
The element <subjectIndicatorRef> provides
a URI reference to a resource that acts as a subject indicator.
definition proposal
A subject indicator reference is a URI reference to a resource that
acts as a subject indicator.
BV
: It seems that we could add the following to be completely clear:
- subject
identifier
An URI used by a topic map author to identify a subject indicator, or
set by a publisher in a published subject documentation to identify
a subject definition resource, will be called a subject identifier.
To
sum it up, a subject can be:
-
represented by a topic in a topic map
-
indicated by a subject indicator by a topic map author through
a subject indicator reference
- defined
or described in a subject definition resource by a published subjects'
publisher
-
published ... if a publisher has taken care to document it in
a proper way
- identified
by an URI wrapped in the subject indicator reference by the topic
map author, or declared in the published subject documentation by the
publisher
3
- Recommendations for published subjects documentation
Considering the considerable legacy of taxonomies, classifications,
ontologies, data bases and catalogues likely to be made available as published
subjects documentations, their publishers should not be constrained more
than necessary to use a specific structure, syntax or language. Therefore,
the present recommendation does not try to enforce upon publishers either
an unique standard structure for published subjects documentation, or
a specific syntax for subject definition resource, or for subject indicator
reference URIs. Nevertheless, it will suggest best practices.
See Annex A - to be delivered.
Besides access to a set of addressable subject definition resources, a
published subjects documentation should include at least the following
informations, ensuring an efficient and trustable use.
- Statement of purpose
- Publisher and documentation
metadata
- Statement of documentation
structure
3.1
- Statement of purpose
A published subjects documentation shall include a formal statement from
its publisher, expliciting its conformance to this recommendation, and
its intention to maintain the documentation trustable, and the subject
indicator references stable.
3.2
- Publisher and documentation metadata
A published subjects documentation should provide, in an addressable
way the following (Dublin Core) metadata.
- Identity
of the publisher (dc:publisher)
- Identity
of the documentation (dc:identifier)
- Source
of documentation (dc:source)
-
Creator (dc:creator) and contributors (dc:contributor)
The above identities should be defined themselves as subject definition
resources.
- Title
of the documentation (dc:title)
- Language
of publication (dc:language)
- Date
of publication or validation (dc:date)
- Possible
restrictions of use (dc:rights)
In
complement to those metadata, the documentation may include recommendations
for use, and list of registered users.
3.3
- Statement of documentation structure
3.3.1 - The published subjects documentation should provide explicit
information on the syntax used for the subject indicator references that
identify its subject definition resources. The subject indicator references
should as far as possible follow a consistent schema throughout the documentation,
e.g. an uniform namespace or query string structure.
3.3.2
- Throughout a published subjects documentation, the subject definition
resources should follow a consistent and uniform structure (DTD, schema
or some equivalent structure definition), allowing unambiguous understanding
of their content. Such uniformity will also enable
their parsing and processing by topic maps engines, search engines, intelligent
agents and any foreseeable kind of semantic web application.
This last point is controversial - just let it there for further discussion.
3.4
- Information
provided by subject definition resources
A
subject definition resource shall provide, following a formal structure
as defined in 3.3.2, explicit information items establishing the published
subject identity, that should include at least the following elements.
- Identifier
(dc:identifier)
The URI that is to be used as the subject indicator reference.
- Name
(dc:subject)
A name given to the subject.
- Type
(dc:type)
A class of which the subject is an instance.
-
Description (dc:description)
Can be text, image or any kind of relevant resource describing the subject
in an human-understandable way.
- Equivalence
Reference to equivalent published subjects in other published subject
documentations.
Annex
A - Best practices for published subjects documentation structure
To be delivered - this Annex will provide examples
of, or references to, published subject documentations conformant to the
present recommendation, in various relevant formats, such as XTM, RDF
or XHTML.
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