[topicmapmail] Dates and Published Subject Indicators
Robert McKinnon
r.m.mckinnon@verizon.net
24 Sep 2002 01:37:57 -0400
Here are the current answers to the questions from my previous post. I
found them in the Deliverables drafts located on the Documents page of
the OASIS Topic Maps Published Subjects Technical Committee[1].
> Is there a definition for what should be at the end of a PSI URL?
The answer in the 20 August 2002 draft of Deliverable 1[2] is:
"Recommendation 1:
* A Published Subject Indicator should provide human-readable metadata.
Recommendation 2:
* A Published Subject Indicator should provide machine-processable
metadata.
Machine-processable metadata are recommended so that applications might
be able to use more information on the subject that its sheer
identification by the URI."
I agree this is very important, especially to allow machine generated
natural language presentations of information contained in a topic map.
The availability of machine-processable multi-language metadata at an
indicator is an attractive prospect, as it would aid the generation of
multi-cultural topic map presentations.
"Human-readable as well as machine-processable metadata can be included
in the Subject Indicator itself (e.g. RDF metadata), or in a separate
resource referenced from the Subject Indicator (e.g. XTM metadata).
Deliverable 2 will provide complementary recommendations on the nature
of those metadata."
The current 27 June 2002 draft of Deliverable 2[3] does not have any
more details on the nature of machine-processable metadata. Currently I
favour having XTM metadata available. IMO this will make implementing an
XTM processing application easier by providing metadata syntax the
application is already designed to process.
> Is there a behaviour defined for what a topic map processor should do
> when a subjectIndicatorRef is parsed?
I imagine this question will be answered by a recommendation in a future
Deliverable from the technical committee.
> My idea is that there be a process behind the date PSI URL that produces
> the date topic XML representation for the specific date requested.
I see that Issue 25[4] in Deliverable 2 makes reference to the idea of
dynamically generated indicators:
"ISSUE 25: Infinite Subject Sets
In the case of infinite subject sets (e.g time and space), is it
possible to allow both subject indicators and identifiers to be
dynamically created on application's request, and not be static
documents?"
I think that the resolution of the issue should be to allow the dynamic
creation of indicators in the case of infinite subject sets. IMO, this
would be a good solution to the particular problem I posed in my last
post.
Regards,
Robert McKinnon
[1] http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tm-pubsubj/docs/index.htm
[2]
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tm-pubsubj/docs/recommendations/general.htm
[3]
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tm-pubsubj/docs/recommendations/psdoc.htm
[4]
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tm-pubsubj/docs/recommendations/issues.htm#issue25
On Sun, 2002-09-22 at 03:28, Robert McKinnon wrote:
> I have begun an offline discussion with Lars Garshol about using Topic
> Maps and Published Subject Indicators to represent genealogical data.
>
> Arising from this discussion are some more general questions that I
> thought would be bettered asked on this list. I'll begin by asking my
> current questions first, and then go on to describe the problem I am
> trying to solve.
>
> Is there a definition for what should be at the end of a PSI URL?
>
> Is there a behaviour defined for what a topic map processor should do
> when a subjectIndicatorRef is parsed? It would be nice if the URI would
> be invoked, and if the result is a topic then that topic be merged into
> the parsed representation of the topic map. Is this the case?
>
> My problem is to find a good way to represent dates in a genealogy topic
> map. To me there seem to be three choices:
>
>
> 1) Use <occurrence> and <resourceData>
>
> <topic id="mary">
> <instanceOf>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#person"/>
> </instanceOf>
> <baseName>
> <scope>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#statutory-death-certificate-554--11--"/>
> </scope>
> <baseNameString>Mary Jamieson</baseNameString>
> </baseName>
> <occurrence>
> <scope>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#statutory-death-certificate-554--11--"/>
> </scope>
> <instanceOf>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#date-of-death"/>
> </instanceOf>
> <resourceData>1879-09-08</resourceData>
> </occurrence>
> </topic>
>
> This results in a more concise format than the other two approaches I
> consider below. However Mary's date of death is not really an occurrence
> of the topic Mary, is it? Also I don't get the advantage of having the
> date as a topic. I might what to query for all associations that involve
> a specific date for example, is this possible if <resourceData> is used?
>
>
> 2) Use an <association> and a <topicRef>
>
> <!-- association type -->
> <topic id="death-date">
> <baseName>
> <scope>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#english"/>
> </scope>
> <baseNameString>death date</baseNameString>
> </baseName>
> <baseName>
> <scope>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#person"/>
> </scope>
> <baseNameString>died on</baseNameString>
> </baseName>
> <baseName>
> <scope>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#date"/>
> </scope>
> <baseNameString>date of death of</baseNameString>
> </baseName>
> </topic>
>
> <association id="death-date-mary">
> <instanceOf>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#death-date"/>
> </instanceOf>
> <scope>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#statutory-death-certificate-554--11--"/>
> </scope>
> <member>
> <roleSpec>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#person"/>
> </roleSpec>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#mary"/>
> </member>
> <member>
> <roleSpec>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#date"/>
> </roleSpec>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#date-1879-09-08"/>
> </member>
> </association>
>
> <topic id="date-1879-09-08">
> <instanceOf>
> <subjectIndicatorRef
> xlink:href="http://psi.dates.org/gregorian-calendar/date"/>
> </instanceOf>
> <baseName>
> <scope>
> <topicRef xlink:href="iso-format"/>
> </scope>
> <baseNameString>1879-09-08</baseNameString>
> </baseName>
> <baseName>
> <scope>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#english"/>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#long-date-format"/>
> </scope>
> <baseNameString>8th September 1879</baseNameString>
> </baseName>
> </topic>
>
>
> I like this option more than the first, as I think using an association
> is a more appropriate way to represent the information than by using an
> occurrence. Also the base name strings on the association type topic and
> the date topic can be used for natural language generation in a
> presentation of the data. However having a new topic for each date
> within the topic map seems incredibly verbose.
>
>
> 3) Use an <association> and a <subjectIndicatorRef>
>
> <association id="death-date-mary">
> <instanceOf>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#death-date"/>
> </instanceOf>
> <scope>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#statutory-death-certificate-554--11--"/>
> </scope>
> <member>
> <roleSpec>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#person"/>
> </roleSpec>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#mary"/>
> </member>
> <member>
> <roleSpec>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#date"/>
> </roleSpec>
> <subjectIndicatorRef
> xlink:href="http://psi.dates.org/gregorian-calendar/1879-09-08"/>
> </member>
> </association>
>
> This is the approach I like the most. However I would like the date PSI
> URL to resolve to a topic instance and for the topic map processor to
> use allow access to the base name strings for natural language
> generation in a presentation of the data.
>
> My idea is that there be a process behind the date PSI URL that produces
> the date topic XML representation for the specific date requested. So
> http://psi.dates.org/gregorian-calendar/1879-09-08 could return:
>
> <topic id="date-1879-09-08">
> <instanceOf>
> <subjectIndicatorRef
> xlink:href="http://psi.dates.org/gregorian-calendar/date"/>
> </instanceOf>
> <baseName>
> <scope>
> <topicRef xlink:href="iso-format"/>
> </scope>
> <baseNameString>1879-09-08</baseNameString>
> </baseName>
> <baseName>
> <scope>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#english"/>
> <topicRef xlink:href="#long-date-format"/>
> </scope>
> <baseNameString>8th September 1879</baseNameString>
> </baseName>
> </topic>
>
> So now you have the context for the questions I posed earlier:
> Is there a definition for what should be at the end of a PSI URL?
> Is there a behaviour defined for what a topic map processor should do
> when a subjectIndicatorRef is parsed?
>
> Regards,
> Robert McKinnon
>
>
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