Exploring reference by description for concepts.

Hi fellas,

Got a question for you, if you've got chance to have a look at this I'd be
very grateful.

At the last SWAD-E technical meeting it was suggested that rather than give
each concept in a thesaurus a URI, we could use reference by description.
So we could have thesaurus data that looks like:

<soks:Concept>	
	<soks:prefLabel>bangers and mash</soks:prefLabel>
	<rdfs:label>bangers & mash</rdfs:label>
	<rdfs:label>sausage and mash</rdfs:label>
	<rdfs:isDefinedBy
rdf:resource="http://www.bigal.com/alsfoodthesaurus"/>
</soks:Concept>

I'm using 'soks' as the prefix to refer to the namespace where we define a
core set of classes and properties for describing generic knowledge
organisation systems including thesauri (superkos -> soks ... got a better
name for this let me know!)

My question is this.  Now if I want to make statements linking this
anonymous concept to other anonymously defined concepts, how do I do that?
Is it enough for example to say ... 

<soks:Concept>	
	<soks:prefLabel>bangers and mash</soks:prefLabel>
	<rdfs:isDefinedBy
rdf:resource="http://www.bigal.com/alsfoodthesaurus"/>
	<iso2788:broader>
		<soks:Concept>
			<soks:prefLabel>english foods</soks:prefLabel>
			<rdfs:isDefinedBy
rdf:resource="http://www.bigal.com/alsfoodthesaurus"/>
		</soks:Concept>
	</iso2788:broader>
</soks:Concept>

Now lets say I also define the concept referenced above more fully ...

<soks:Concept>
	<soks:prefLabel>english foods</soks:prefLabel>
	<rdfs:label>english dishes</rdfs:label>	
	<rdfs:label>english cuisine</rdfs:label>	
	<rdfs:isDefinedBy
rdf:resource="http://www.bigal.com/alsfoodthesaurus"/>
</soks:Concept>

... if all the above rdf statements in this email define a model, does that
model have two or four anonymous concepts?  
If I ask a query engine, what are all the rdfs:labels of the concept that is
broader than the concept with soks:prefLabel 'bangers and mash', what answer
will I get?   

Can you can point me to any parts of the specs that deals with this?

Thanks,

Alistair.

CCLRC - Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Building R1 Room 1.60
Fermi Avenue
Chilton
Didcot
Oxfordshire OX11 0QX
United Kingdom

Email:        a.j.miles@rl.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)1235 445440

Received on Wednesday, 29 October 2003 12:02:35 UTC