Re: ISSUE-41 (alt/alternative): use of skos:altLabel or dcterms:alternative [Registered Organization Vocabulary]

I realise that this issue has lain dormant for too long but as ORG is 
now close to CR (I hope!) this needs picking up. Apologies as usual for 
my own tardiness.


I'm happy for skos:altLabel to be used rather than dcterms:alternative. 
As justification:

- it's in line with ORG;
- it's what the linked data community prefers.

That's enough for me.

So the question then is what to do about skos:prefLabel/rov:legalName? 
How about this:

- leave ORG's use of skos:prefLabel untouched;
- keep rov:legalName;
- change the current definition of rov:legalName from:

The legal name of the business. A business might have more than one 
legal name, particularly in countries with more than one official 
language. In such cases, and where the encoding technology allows, the 
language of the string should be identified.

To

In line with the ORG Ontology, the legal name of the registered 
Organization should be given using skos:prefLabel property. However, 
there are some jurisdictions in which multiple legal names are 
recognized in the same language which would lead to multiple instances 
of the skos:prefLabel property tagged with the same language for the 
same entity. This is inconsistent with SKOS; therefore, RegOrg provides 
the rov:legalName property specifically to allow for multiple labels of 
equal primary status in the same language.

For clarity:
- always use skos:prefLabel to give a legally recognized name of a 
registered organization;
- where there are multiple legal names for a registered organization in 
multiple languages, but only one name per language, again, use 
skos:prefLabel (with language tags);
- where there are multiple legal names in the same language, use 
rov:legalName for those *additional* legal names.

Alternative names with no legal standing, such as trading names and 
colloquial names, should be given using skos:altLabel.

It means that skos:prefLabel will always be present and rov:legalName 
where it's needed - which is less than ideal, but seems like a practical 
way forward?

Phil.




On 23/10/2012 16:16, Richard Cyganiak wrote:
> On 23 Oct 2012, at 14:53, Government Linked Data Working Group Issue Tracker wrote:
>> In his comments [1], Richard suggests using skos:prefLabel and skoa:altlabel for what is currently rov:legalName and dcterms:alternative.
>
> (Note, I suggested making rov:legalName a superproperty of skos:prefLabel.)
>
>> The reasoning is sound in that this is inline with ORG. However, some jurisdictions, such as Canada, where a company can have more than one legal name. They're not translations and there is no order of preference.
>
> Ah, okay. I didn't realize that. I guess I misinterpreted this sentence:
>
> [[
> A business might have more than one legal name, particularly in countries with more than one official language.
> ]]
>
> I read this as: “it happens only in countries with more than one official language”. I now see that this isn't what the sentence says, but it's easy to misinterpret.
>
>> We'd have to allow multiple skos:preLabel properties which isn't good.
>
> In fact, it's SKOS-inconsistent.
>
>> Hence ity is questionable whether it is appropriate to define rov:lagelName as a sub property of skos:prefLabel.
>
> Right. I withdraw this part of the suggestion.
>
> I'm tempted to suggest that using skos:prefLabel in the mapping should still be allowed in those jurisdictions where there's only one legal name per language, and use skos:label otherwise, but that seems like a kludge.
>
> (ORG says that skos:prefLabel should be used for the legally recognized name. I guess there's an issue here, and ORG should say what to do if there's more than one?)
>
>> Richard then suggests using skos:altLabel rather than dcterms:alternative. This again seems logical but given the above, so we want to suggest the use of skos:altLabel in the absence of skos:prefLabel?
>
> Yes, to be ORG-conformant. Or is there anything in SKOS that discourages altLabels if no prefLabel exists?
>
> Best,
> Richard
>
>
>
>>
>> [1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-gld-wg/2012Oct/0101.html
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>

-- 


Phil Archer
W3C eGovernment
http://www.w3.org/egov/

http://philarcher.org
+44 (0)7887 767755
@philarcher1

Received on Thursday, 28 February 2013 10:39:57 UTC