I thought maybe SKOS [1] might have a suitable term, but alas not. The
nearest I can find on a quick vocab skim (see [2]) are variations on
'label', but these are unsuitable not only because they're a bit weak,
but also because their range is a literal. So +1 to making up a custom
term.
I would suggest using rdfs:seeAlso. I know, I know, usually people complain
that rdfs:seeAlso is too generic and demand that the community should come
up with some kind of "is quite similar to" predicate (this has been going on
for a while now and to my knowledge there are still no serious outcomes). In
contrast, I would still prefer an established, generic property to something
that needs to be invented anew. rdfs:seeAlso is established (which also
means that people are more likely to re-use it then something you create in
your own little namespace), and it is also understood by some existing
applications. If all of us are starting to create our own "is quite similar
to" predicates, we are probably worse off than just using rdfs:seeAlso. The
semantics of these "is quite similar to" relations would probably be so
fuzzy that they would hardly be any more precise and useful than
rdfs:seeAlso, anyways.
Cheers,
Matthias Samwald
DERI Galway, Ireland
http://deri.ie/
Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution & Cognition Research, Austria
http://kli.ac.at/
