Hi Mathew, Thanks for the quick response.
The technical answers were helpful. I'm exploring the knowledge forge project you pointed me at - looks like what I had in mind has (largely) already been done. Brian > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:developers- > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Matthew Somerville > Sent: 23 July 2009 10:22 > To: mySociety public, general purpose discussion list > Subject: Re: [mySociety:public] Questions about ids in XML files > > McBride, Brian wrote: > > I'm looking at converting the information represented in the XML > files > > on http://ukparse.kforge.net/parlparse to RDF in linked open data > > style. If anyone is already doing this, please let me know so I can > > either help or get out of the way. > > There has definitely been discussion in the past by people like Keith > Alexander and Graham Higgins - e.g. > http://semwebdev.keithalexander.co.uk/blog/posts/twfy-rdf-mapping and > http://project.knowledgeforge.net/semwebparlparse/ > > > I'd like to understand the semantics of the id attributes in files > like > > all-members.xml. For example, the first member element describes > Diane > > Abbott representing Hackney North and Stoke Newington from 1997-05- > 01 > > to 2001-05-14 and has an id of "uk.org.publicwhip/member/1". > > Yep. You also want people.xml which is meant to match all the member > IDs > of one person to one person ID. > > > Basically I would like to understand how these ids might change with > > time. > > That particular ID will certainly never change. > > > I'd also like to understand the semantics of the various hansard > ids. > > They are/were for matching up with the historic Hansard data Parliament > made available, they're not actually used by TheyWorkForYou itself. > > > Leaving aside processing errors etc, is it possible that in a future > (or > > earlier) published version of all-members.xml a different id might be > > used to identify the same "member" or record i.e. same person > > representing the same constituency for the same period? > > No. A member ID is even more limited than that - it's the same person > representing the same constituency for a particular party/name for that > period. ie. a name change/ party change mandates a new entry and a new > member ID. This does mean that it's possible for a correction to be > made > to a previous ID (say someone got married halfway through a Parliament, > changed their name, and we missed it - unlikely, but say - then we > would > need to create a new member ID for their new name and change the date > range for the old member ID). > > > Leaving aside processing errors etc, is it possible that in a future > (or > > earlier) published version of all-members.xml the id > > "uk.org.publicwhip/member/1" might be used to identify a different > > "member" or record i.e. where the person or the constituency or the > > period is different? > > Only to correct an error as above (I'm not sure if that's what you > meant > by processing error) - it (and all its details) would never change if > they're correct, and the ID would certainly never point at a different > person. > > > Are any of the ids used in the various xml files intended to remain > the > > same across time and this be suitable for constructing URIs? > > All member and person IDs are meant to remain the same. There are/ will > be anomalies in the person IDs where e.g. we have two entries for > someone who was both an MP and a Lord and we didn't "join them up" - in > which case one of the two person IDs will be removed (and not reused) > and both member IDs will be matched to that person ID. > > Constituencies are a bit more haphazard - historical ones are again > based on the historical Hansard data and the from/to of those are > broadly just name-based, but with some other things too. I wouldn't > infer anything about constituency IDs beyond they cover a range - ie. > for the next general election, it's probably easiest to create new > constituency IDs for all the English/Wales/NI constituencies given > they've all had boundary reviews, even if actually a few of them have > had no changes. Plus some have had substantial changes but kept the > same > name. > > > I'm figuring out how to create URIs for members, constituencies etc > so I > > need to know the scope in which the various ids in the xml files > > identify things. > > Hope that's helpful. > > ATB, > Matthew > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list [email protected] > Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers- > public _______________________________________________ Mailing list [email protected] Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public
