[foaf-dev] Fwd: [Fwd: Request for Comments: SKOS Reference: W3C Working Draft 25 January 2008]

[Dan Brickley]

Hi all!

The SKOS spec is out as a first W3C Working Draft. See below for
background and more links or go straight here if you know the story:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-skos-reference-20080125/

"Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), a common data model for
sharing and linking knowledge organization systems via the Semantic
Web."  (aka "thesauri and suchlike, in a data-mixing-centric format")

Could someone forward this also to the most appropriate data
portability list? thanks.

In the FOAF, SIOC, DISO and data portability world, I imagine SKOS may
be of most interest as a way of modelling and sharing categorisation
and taxonomy schemes between blogs and 'social Web' sites. SKOS is
well grounded in the Library (thesauri etc) world too, and IMHO
provides a bridge between personal, organizational and library
approaches to organizing information. I hope to use to share and
aggregate blog categories with my friends, and their (statistical,
bottom-up) association with tags and other metadata, eg. through
http://wiki.foaf-project.org/SparqlPress

In passing it's also worth mentioning that SKOS is a nice (imho) story
about bringing work into W3C once it has been developed initially
through open public collaboration. It began in the EU project that
Libby and I used to run for W3C, but Alistair led the design work on a
public list hosted at W3C,
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-esw-thes/ ... making it
easy for a later W3C group to refine and publish it as a "Note". The
work proved popular and the W3C membership chartered a full Working
Group to take it down the full "REC track", hence this first public
draft from the new group.  The entire history of this work is in the
publically readable (and joinable) public-esw-thes list, if you're
interested to get more involved.

There are some tutorial / background docs here, for more context:
http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/references including some introductory
PPT slides from the Dublin Core conference in 2005,
http://isegserv.itd.rl.ac.uk/cvs-public/~checkout~/skos/press/dc2005/tutorial.ppt
which might be of interest, although note that the spec has evolved
since then, so don't treat it as a reference.

I'm sure the WG will appreciate any feedback, so please send review
comments if you can spare the time.

Many thanks!

Dan

-- 
http://danbri.org/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dan Brickley <danbri at danbri.org>
Date: 30 Jan 2008 19:45
Subject: [Fwd: Request for Comments: SKOS Reference: W3C Working Draft
25 January 2008]
To: Dan Brickley <danbrickley at gmail.com>




Hi all,

I've sent this announcement to the following lists:

public-esw-thes at w3.org
semantic-web at w3.org
dc-general at jiscmail.ac.uk
dc-architecture at jiscmail.ac.uk
ecoterm at npogroups.org
public-owl-dev at w3.org
public-owl-wg at w3.org
facetedclassification at yahoogroups.com
NKOS at WWW.DLI2.NSF.GOV
public-semweb-lifesci at w3.org
diglib at infoserv.inist.fr
info-ic at listes.irisa.fr
ontogenesis at mail.ontonet.org
seweb-list at lists.deri.org
public-rif-wg at w3.org
public-sweo-ig at w3.org

---

  W3C Semantic Web Deployment Working Group

We are pleased to announce the publication of the SKOS Reference as a
W3C First Public Working Draft:

  http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-skos-reference-20080125/

This is a substantial update to and replacement for the previous SKOS
Core Vocabulary Specification W3C Working Draft dated 2 November 2005
[1].

We ask at this stage feedback and reviews on this draft specification.
All comments are welcome and may be sent to public-swd-wg at w3.org; please
include the text "SKOS comment" in the subject line. Note especially
that there are a number of open issues, which are indicated in the
document. Please forward this announcement to any other groups which may
be interested.

Abstract:

"""
This document defines the Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), a
common data model for sharing and linking knowledge organization systems
via the Semantic Web.

Many knowledge organization systems, such as thesauri, taxonomies,
classification schemes and subject heading systems, share a similar
structure, and are used in similar applications. SKOS captures much of
this similarity and makes it explicit, to enable data and technology
sharing across diverse applications.

The SKOS data model provides a standard, low-cost migration path for
porting existing knowledge organization systems to the Semantic Web.
SKOS also provides a light weight, intuitive language for developing and
sharing new knowledge organization systems. It may be used on its own,
or in combination with formal knowledge representation languages such as
the Web Ontology language (OWL).

This document is the normative specification of the Simple Knowledge
Organization System. It is intended for readers who are involved in the
design and implementation of information systems, and who already have a
good understanding of Semantic Web technology, especially RDF and OWL.

For an informative guide to using SKOS, see the upcoming SKOS Primer.
"""

For more information on SKOS, the Semantic Web Deployment Working Group,
or the W3C Semantic Web Activity, please see the following links:

 http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos
 http://www.w3.org/2006/07/SWD/
 http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/

Kind regards,

Alistair.

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-swbp-skos-core-spec-20051102/

--
Alistair Miles
Science and Technology Facilities Council
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Harwell Science and Innovation Campus
Didcot
Oxfordshire
OX11 0QX
United Kingdom
Web: http://purl.org/net/aliman
Email: a.j.miles at rl.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1235 445440