SKOS: Simple Knowledge Organization System

[John F. Sowa]

For what it's worth, following is an announcement of a primer on SKOS.
The purpose of SKOS is to provide a simpler way of representing RDF.
But if anyone can remember, the original purpose of RDF was to provide
a very simple entry-level knowledge representation.  Its justification
was that first-order logic was too difficult for mere programmers.

But if you follow the pointer to the SKOS primer, notice that the title
of Section 4 is "Advanced SKOS:  When KOS Aren't Simple Anymore".

Questions for the reader:

  1. How many more simple knowledge representation languages will be
     needed to simplify each of the previous languages?

  2. Has anyone noticed that each of these "simple" representations
     has a much longer and more convoluted tutorial than GOFFOL --
     Good Old-Fashioned First-Order Logic?

For related reading, see

    http://www.jfsowa.com/pubs/fflogic.pdf
    Fads and Fallacies About Logic

By the way, Jim Hendler, who has been one of the promoters of the
Semantic Web, was the person who invited me to write that article
on Fads and Fallacies.  Despite the fact that Jim and I have had
disagreements about many issues, Jim liked that article.

John Sowa

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [seweb-list] Call for Comments: SKOS Primer: W3C Working
Draft 21 February 2008
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 23:29:08 +0100
From: Antoine Isaac <aisaac@...>
To: seweb-list@...

W3C Semantic Web Deployment Working Group

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

http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-skos-primer-20080221/

This is a substantial update to and replacement for the previous SKOS
Core Guide W3C Working Draft dated 2 November 2005 [1]. It is a
companion document to the SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System
Reference W3C Working Draft dated 25 January 2008 [2].

We ask at this stage feedback and reviews on this draft guide. All
comments are welcome and may be sent to public-swd-wg@...; 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:
"""
SKOS — Simple Knowledge Organization System — provides a model for
expressing the basic structure and content of concept schemes such as
thesauri, classification schemes, subject heading lists, taxonomies,
folksonomies, and other types of controlled vocabulary. As an
application of the Resource Description Framework (RDF) SKOS
allows concepts to be documented, linked and merged with other data,
while still being composed, integrated and published on the World Wide Web.

This document is an implementors guide for those who would like to
represent their concept scheme using SKOS.

In basic SKOS, conceptual resources (concepts) can be identified using
URIs, labelled with strings in one or more natural languages, documented
with various types of notes, semantically related to each other in
informal hierarchies and association networks, and aggregated into
distinct concept schemes.

In advanced SKOS, conceptual resources can be mapped to conceptual
resources in other schemes and grouped into labelled or ordered
collections. Concept labels can also be related to each other. Finally,
the SKOS vocabulary itself can be extended to suit the needs of
particular communities of practice.

This document is a companion to the SKOS Reference, which gives the
normative reference on SKOS.
"""

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,

Antoine

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-swbp-skos-core-guide-20051102/
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-skos-reference-20080125/

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[Peter Eklund]

John.

I am not sure about your statement that "The purpose of SKOS is to  
provide a simpler way of representing RDF". SKOS is a particular RDF  
rendered vocabulary for thesauri, it finds broad application in  
content management systems where it is used, among other things, to  
manage keywords, term-trees and control vocabularies.

I think many would argue that SKOS is one of the most practical and  
applied uses of RDF. It has broad uptake and commercial appeal but a  
very narrow and specific purpose. It seems to me nothing like FOL,  
maybe that is your point.

/Peter

http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2005/06/22/skos.html



On 28/02/2008, at 6:51 AM, John F. Sowa wrote:

> For what it's worth, following is an announcement of a primer on SKOS.
> The purpose of SKOS is to provide a simpler way of representing RDF.
> But if anyone can remember, the original purpose of RDF was to provide
> a very simple entry-level knowledge representation.  Its justification
> was that first-order logic was too difficult for mere programmers.
>
> But if you follow the pointer to the SKOS primer, notice that the  
> title
> of Section 4 is "Advanced SKOS:  When KOS Aren't Simple Anymore".
>
> Questions for the reader:
>
> 1. How many more simple knowledge representation languages will be
>  needed to simplify each of the previous languages?
>
> 2. Has anyone noticed that each of these "simple" representations
>  has a much longer and more convoluted tutorial than GOFFOL --
>  Good Old-Fashioned First-Order Logic?
>
> For related reading, see
>
> http://www.jfsowa.com/pubs/fflogic.pdf
> Fads and Fallacies About Logic
>
> By the way, Jim Hendler, who has been one of the promoters of the
> Semantic Web, was the person who invited me to write that article
> on Fads and Fallacies.  Despite the fact that Jim and I have had
> disagreements about many issues, Jim liked that article.
>
> John Sowa
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [seweb-list] Call for Comments: SKOS Primer: W3C Working  
> Draft 21 February 2008
> Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 23:29:08 +0100
> From: Antoine Isaac <aisaac@...>
> To: seweb-list@...
>
> W3C Semantic Web Deployment Working Group
>
> We are pleased to announce the publication of the SKOS Primer as a W3C
> First Public Working Draft:
>
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-skos-primer-20080221/
>
> This is a substantial update to and replacement for the previous SKOS
> Core Guide W3C Working Draft dated 2 November 2005 [1]. It is a
> companion document to the SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System
> Reference W3C Working Draft dated 25 January 2008 [2].
>
> We ask at this stage feedback and reviews on this draft guide. All
> comments are welcome and may be sent to public-swd-wg@...; 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:
> """
> SKOS — Simple Knowledge Organization System — provides a model for
> expressing the basic structure and content of concept schemes such as
> thesauri, classification schemes, subject heading lists, taxonomies,
> folksonomies, and other types of controlled vocabulary. As an
> application of the Resource Description Framework (RDF) SKOS
> allows concepts to be documented, linked and merged with other data,
> while still being composed, integrated and published on the World  
> Wide Web.
>
> This document is an implementors guide for those who would like to
> represent their concept scheme using SKOS.
>
> In basic SKOS, conceptual resources (concepts) can be identified using
> URIs, labelled with strings in one or more natural languages,  
> documented
> with various types of notes, semantically related to each other in
> informal hierarchies and association networks, and aggregated into
> distinct concept schemes.
>
> In advanced SKOS, conceptual resources can be mapped to conceptual
> resources in other schemes and grouped into labelled or ordered
> collections. Concept labels can also be related to each other.  
> Finally,
> the SKOS vocabulary itself can be extended to suit the needs of
> particular communities of practice.
>
> This document is a companion to the SKOS Reference, which gives the
> normative reference on SKOS.
> """
>
> 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,
>
> Antoine
>
> [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-swbp-skos-core-guide-20051102/
> [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-skos-reference-20080125/
>
> _______________________________________________
> seweb-list mailing list
> seweb-list@...
> https://lists.deri.at/mailman/listinfo/seweb-list
>
>
>
>
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[John F. Sowa]

Peter,

I agree that there are many special purpose notations that can be
and have been developed for many very important applications.

 > I think many would argue that SKOS is one of the most practical
 > and applied uses of RDF. It has broad uptake and commercial appeal
 > but a very narrow and specific purpose. It seems to me nothing
 > like FOL, maybe that is your point.

Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all interface that is good
for all possible uses.  For any particular special case, it is possible
to develop a notation that far exceeds any general purpose language,
such as FOL, English, or anything else.  But then there is the problem
of teaching that notation to the people who have to use it.

And that leads to a nugget of wisdom that I heard from a programmer
who was commenting on all the many tools for enhancing productivity:

    For any particular problem, any one of those tools is an enormous
    aid to productivity.  But any two of them together will kill you.

John




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