OASIS Topic Maps Published Subjects Technical Committee
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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.