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OK, Pete, I'm going to try to write the other email that I mentioned in
the previous one. This email relates to the actual suggestion that you
made in the email, that is to use the URIs of the form like:
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/mCcSp#Occurrence">"http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/mCcSp#Occurrence"</a>.
In the RDF that
defines what this URI means, the URI is described as "A lightweight tag
that can be used to label occurrences of this species". What I'm not
sure about is what exactly one is supposed to do with it. From the
example that I was talking about in the previous email
(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://ocs.taxonconcept.org/ocs/f522444a-2dd9-400e-be59-47213ef38cb9.rdf">http://ocs.taxonconcept.org/ocs/f522444a-2dd9-400e-be59-47213ef38cb9.rdf</a>),
this "tag" is the object of the predicate
txn:occurrenceHasSpeciesOccurrenceTag . So I guess that it is another
way that one could query Occurrence records to find out which ones are
Occurrences of the species having the identifier "ICmLC" (<i>Boloria
selene</i>). But I'm not sure what the advantage of that is. The RDF
for the Occurrence already tells me that the Occurrence has the
txn:occurrenceHasSpeciesConcept property with object URI
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/ICmLC#Species">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/ICmLC#Species</a>
. I can resolve that URI
and "find out" that the "species concept" (sensu
DeVries) is <i>Boloria selene</i> . But if I used the "lightweight
tag" I'd also have to resolve its URI to find out about it and the RDF
for the tag directs me to the
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/ICmLC#Species">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/ICmLC#Species</a>
URI anyway via the
dcterms:isPartOf property of the tag. I guess the point is that if one
wants to "find out" about the Occurrence, it takes two steps to get to
the species concept description if I use the tag (first through
txn:occurrenceHasSpeciesOccurrenceTag, then through dcterms:isPartOf)
which is no advantage over just getting there in one step (via
txn:occurrenceHasSpeciesConcept). If the only point is to have
something to put in as a search term, then why not just make the
txn:occurrenceHasSpeciesOccurrenceTag a data property with the literal
object the string "ICmLC"? <br>
<br>
I suppose that one could say that an advantage of the "lightweight tag"
approach would be that one is indicating that the particular Occurrence
is an instance of a class that consists of all Occurrences of the
species <i>Bororia selene</i>. That seems to be what the intention
is. But this seems to be a case of creating many subclasses rather
than having a general class and assigning it properties that help one
to understand the nature of the instance of that class. It requires
the creation of a class for every species on the planet. Instead of
there being a relatively small number of classes that includes the
basic kinds of resources (Occurrence, individual, Identification, taxon
concept) there is a class for occurrences of every kind of taxon
concept.
Actually, there are several classes for every instance of taxon
concept, because you are recommending that the "lightweight tag"
approach be used for other types of things as well, such as individuals
and (in your suggestion below, populations). There isn't anything
intrinsically "wrong" with this approach, but with my bias toward
preferring "well known" types/classes it just seems like a lot to
expect consuming applications to "understand" what amounts to
potentially millions of classes that this method would introduce.<br>
<br>
I also don't quite understand what a txn:SpeciesOccurrenceTag is
exactly. In the RDF that defines the txn:SpeciesOccurrenceTag instance
for <i>Bororia selene</i>
(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/ICmLC#Occurrence">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/ICmLC#Occurrence</a>)
the
dcterms:description says that it "allow species occurrences to be
modeled as instances of SpeciesOccurrenceTag". But that doesn't seem
to be what is actually occurring. When the Occurrence instance
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://ocs.taxonconcept.org/ocs/f522444a-2dd9-400e-be59-47213ef38cb9#Occurrence">http://ocs.taxonconcept.org/ocs/f522444a-2dd9-400e-be59-47213ef38cb9#Occurrence</a>
is described, it is not typed as the lightweight tag (which IS a
txn:SpeciesOccurrenceTag because of the implicit typing caused by the
XML container element name). The lightweight tag URI is the object of
the txn:occurrenceHasSpeciesOccurrenceTag property, but that doesn't
make the Occurrence an instance of SpeciesOcurrenceTag as would be the
case (I think) if the lightweight tag URI were the object of a rdf:type
property. Anyway, I'm confused about this.<br>
<br>
The other issue that I would raise with this approach is that it brings
up the same issue that I raised in the other email that I wrote. It
essentially puts a burden of anticipating the results of a query onto
the metadata provider. If one follows the model of allowing multiple
Identifications for an organism, then it is possible that someone
somewhere else might apply their own Identification instance to the
individual represented in the Occurrence. As was the case in my
earlier example, for txn:occurrenceHasSpeciesOccurrenceTag to be useful
as a thing to be queried, the metadata provider would need to somehow
know that this additional Identification had been made, and then create
another txn:occurrenceHasSpeciesOccurrenceTag property for the
Occurrence instance. This seems to somewhat at odds with the benefit
that the Linked Data world has in allowing resources to be created by
people all over the cloud and then linked rather than expecting a
centralized authority to do everything. <br>
<br>
Anyway, maybe you can explain what is going on so that I can understand
it better and maybe explain why this approach is better than just
creating a few classes and describing their instances by descriptive
properties. <br>
<br>
Steve<br>
<br>
Peter DeVries wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:BANLkTikHB2yb6LtnEWLmwWN_wy7ObyZSiQ@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">I am still somewhat puzzled why TDWG seems so opposed to
adopting anything that comes from outside a small click?
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<div>I was thinking that it would be best to create a separate class
that can be used for populations of a species.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>This would require adding an additional tag to the TaxonConcept
Species Concept Model, which currently includes several tags like
entities</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/mCcSp#Species">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/mCcSp#Species</a>
<- The Species Concept for the Cougar</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<div>See <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p.htm">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p.htm</a>l
HTML</div>
<div> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p.rdf">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p.rdf</a>
RDF</div>
<div> <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lsd.taxonconcept.org/describe/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flod.taxonconcept.org%2Fses%2Fv6n7p%23Species">http://lsd.taxonconcept.org/describe/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flod.taxonconcept.org%2Fses%2Fv6n7p%23Species</a>
Knowledge Base View (<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://bit.ly%20bit.ly/gMFqR1">http://bit.ly bit.ly/gMFqR1</a></div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div>The model mints URI's for the following related entities. See
RDF. or KB View</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/mCcSp#Image">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/mCcSp#Image</a>
- An image of a Cougar</div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/mCcSp#Occurrence">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/mCcSp#Occurrence</a>
- An occurrence of a Cougar</div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/mCcSp#Individual">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/mCcSp#Individual</a>
- An individual Cougar</div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/mCcSp#Taxonomy">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/mCcSp#Taxonomy</a>
- A Basic Taxonomy for the Cougar, one alternative among many
potential classifications</div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/mCcSp#NCBI_Taxonomy">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/mCcSp#NCBI_Taxonomy</a>
- The NCBI Taxonomy for Cougar, or starting at the lowest available
clade</div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/mCcSp#OriginalDescription">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/mCcSp#OriginalDescription</a>
- The Original Description of the Cougar, ideally with links to the PDF
or BHL URI.</div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div>Here is how a subset of these would relate to the new
#Population Tag and related semantic entities.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>This tag is used an individual organism that that is an instance
of the species concept pecies concept RDF.</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>This allows you to refer to a individual cougar in a way that is
separate from the concept of cougar and retains links to other data
relating to that species concept.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<txn:SpeciesIndividualTag rdf:about="<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p#Individual">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p#Individual</a>"></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<dcterms:title>A Tag for individuals of the species concept Puma
concolor se:v6n7p</dcterms:title></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<skos:prefLabel>A Tag-like resource that is used to label
individuals of the species concept Puma concolor
se:v6n7p</skos:prefLabel></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<dcterms:identifier><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p#Individual">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p#Individual</a></dcterms:identifier></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<dcterms:description>A lightweight tag that can be used to label
individuals of this species. These allow individual organisms to be
modeled as instances of SpeciesIndividualTag</dcterms:description></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<dcterms:isPartOf rdf:resource="<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p#Species">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p#Species</a>"/></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<wdrs:describedby rdf:resource="<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p.rdf">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p.rdf</a>"/></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
</txn:SpeciesIndividualTag></font></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Add a tag for a species population to the species concept RDF.</div>
<div>This allows you to refer to a population of cougars in a way
that is separate for an individual cougar and retains links to other
data relating to that species concept.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<txn:SpeciesPopulationTag rdf:about="<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p#Population">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p#Population</a>"></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<dcterms:title>A Tag for populations of the species concept Puma
concolor se:v6n7p</dcterms:title></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<skos:prefLabel>A Tag-like resource that is used to label
populations of the species concept Puma concolor
se:v6n7p</skos:prefLabel></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<dcterms:identifier><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p#Population">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p#Population</a></dcterms:identifier></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<dcterms:description>A lightweight tag that can be used to label
populations of this species. These allow populations of a species to be
modeled as instances of SpeciesIndividualTag</dcterms:description></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<dcterms:isPartOf rdf:resource="<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p#Species">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p#Species</a>"/></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<wdrs:describedby rdf:resource="<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p.rdf">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p.rdf</a>"/></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
</txn:SpeciesPopulationTag></font></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>This is the RDF for a population, it has as one of it's parts an
individual organism.</div>
<div>It is typed to indicate that it refers to a population of
Cougars.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<owl:Class rdf:about="<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/pops/NorthAmericanCougarPopulation">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/pops/NorthAmericanCougarPopulation</a>"></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<rdf:type rdf:resource="<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p#Population">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/ses/v6n7p#Population</a>"/></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<skos:prefLabel>The population of North American Cougars Puma
concolor se:v6n7 </skos:prefLabel></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<dcterms:hasPart rdf:resource="<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://ocs.taxonconcept.org/ocs/51cd124d-78c5-40aa-a7ff-2e3f58ca6ade#Individual">http://ocs.taxonconcept.org/ocs/51cd124d-78c5-40aa-a7ff-2e3f58ca6ade#Individual</a>"/></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
<wdrs:describedby rdf:resource="<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lod.taxonconcept.org/pops/NorthAmericanCougarPopulation.rdf">http://lod.taxonconcept.org/pops/NorthAmericanCougarPopulation.rdf</a>"/></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="tahoma, sans-serif">
</owl:Class></font></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Respectfully,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>- Pete</div>
<p><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</font></p>
<p><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">Pete DeVries</font></p>
<p><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">Department of Entomology</font></p>
<p><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">University of Wisconsin - Madison</font></p>
<p><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">445 Russell Laboratories</font></p>
<p><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">1630 Linden Drive</font></p>
<p><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">Madison, WI 53706</font></p>
<p><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">Email: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:pdevries@wisc.edu" target="_blank">pdevries@wisc.edu</a></font></p>
<p><font face="tahoma, sans-serif"><span><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.taxonconcept.org/" target="_blank">TaxonConcept </a></span><span> &
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://lod.geospecies.org/"
target="_blank"><span>GeoSpecies</span></a> Knowledge Bases</span></font></p>
<p><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">A Semantic Web, <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://linkeddata.org/" target="_blank"><span>Linked
Open Data </span></a> Project</font></p>
<p><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</font></p>
<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Steven J. Baskauf, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer
Vanderbilt University Dept. of Biological Sciences
postal mail address:
VU Station B 351634
Nashville, TN 37235-1634, U.S.A.
delivery address:
2125 Stevenson Center
1161 21st Ave., S.
Nashville, TN 37235
office: 2128 Stevenson Center
phone: (615) 343-4582, fax: (615) 343-6707
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu">http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu</a>
</pre>
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