Re: [CODE4LIB] Fwd: [rules] Publication of the RDA Element Vocabularies
Hi Jon, Regarding the 'returning only relevant part' vs. 'returning whole document': It is not 'wrong' to include more than just what you asked for. I don't know about any guideline that says how much extra should/could be included. For example, if you ask for a description of me, I might want to give you next to my name, and workplace URI, a summary of the organisation I work for plus a link to a more complete description of my workplace. However, since we're (well, you are) identifying things (the somewhat abstract concepts of classes and properties), it does make sense to use different URIs for the Thing and a Description of the Thing. Two approaches for this are using hash URIs and using 303-redirects to descriptions. Returning an HTML document (or XML document as I get) in response to a request for an RDA property or class is wrong in the Linked Data sense [note 1]. This is explained in the W3C WG Note that you referred to in recipe 2 [2]. Are you planning on introducing 303-redirects? Groeten van Ben [note 1] I am aware of the continuing discussion about alternative ways of linking a Thing and description(s) of the Thing, especially for Things that cannot be retrieved over the internet. And you're not alone: DOI URIs and ORCID URIs do not return objects (usually publications) or researchers/contributors but descriptions of the Things the DOI and ORCID claim to identify (e.g. a tweet to Rob Sanderson + following discussions [3]). [2]: http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-vocab-pub/#recipe2 [3]: https://twitter.com/datacite/status/380773240295022592 On 23-01-14 00:26, Jon Phipps jphi...@madcreek.com wrote: 'slash' vs. 'hash' URIs: As a matter of design, we coin URIs for retrieval of information about the resource identified by the URI by machines, not humans. The most current formal rules[1] state that retrieving a 'slash' fragment should return just that fragment when resolved. We're currently breaking that rule by always returning the entire vocabulary, as if it was indeed using hash URIs and will fix it in the next few weeks. An example of such a fragment (generated by the Open Metadata Registry for http://rdaregistry.info/Elements/w/P10001) is here: http://metadataregistry.org/schemaprop/show/id/15304.rdf
[CODE4LIB] Code4Lib 2014 conference t-shirt voting ends tomorrow!
Last call to drop by the Diebold-o-tron to cast your vote: http://vote.code4lib.org/election/29 Voting ends tomorrow, January 24.
Re: [CODE4LIB] Fwd: [rules] Publication of the RDA Element Vocabularies
Hi Ben, On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 4:48 AM, Ben Companjen ben.compan...@dans.knaw.nlwrote: Returning an HTML document (or XML document as I get) in response to a request for an RDA property or class is wrong in the Linked Data sense [note 1]. This is explained in the W3C WG Note that you referred to in recipe 2 [2]. I'm the co-author of that note, so I'm all too familiar with it. :-) At the moment, it shouldn't be possible to request html from rdaregistry.info without getting redirected to www.rdaregistry.info (hosted on github using github pages). Although I'm doing a minimal job of checking the HTTP Accept header. Are you planning on introducing 303-redirects? I'm deeply embarrassed (really) by the fact that the redirect is not a 303 and that it may not be consistent. As well as by the fact that it doesn't return the requested fragment (which I still believe is best practice). So, yeah, as soon as I get back from the ALA Midwinter conference (sooner if I can get some meeting-free time). I'll at least get a 303 redirect header in there (still learning nginx). Cheers! Jon
Re: [CODE4LIB] Code4Lib 2014 conference t-shirt voting ends tomorrow!
The wording on the tshirt voting leads one to believe the tshirts are going to be doing presentations. We are the future! For each item, choose the score you wish to assign from 0-3. You may assign scores to as many items as you like. The top 10 proposals with the highest scores will be guaranteed a slot at the conference. Additional presentations will be selected by the Program Committee in an effort to ensure diversity in program content. Community votes will, of course, still weigh heavily in these decisions. -lisa Lisa M. Rabey | @pnkrcklibrarian An Unreliable Narrator: http://exitpursuedbyabear.net Cunning Tales from a Systems Librarian: http://lisa.rabey.net On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 9:00 AM, Josh Wilson joshwilso...@gmail.com wrote: Last call to drop by the Diebold-o-tron to cast your vote: http://vote.code4lib.org/election/29 Voting ends tomorrow, January 24.
Re: [CODE4LIB] Fwd: [rules] Publication of the RDA Element Vocabularies
On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 10:08 AM, Jon Phipps jphi...@madcreek.com wrote: Hi Ben, On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 4:48 AM, Ben Companjen ben.compan...@dans.knaw.nlwrote: Returning an HTML document (or XML document as I get) in response to a request for an RDA property or class is wrong in the Linked Data sense [note 1]. This is explained in the W3C WG Note that you referred to in recipe 2 [2]. I'm the co-author of that note, so I'm all too familiar with it. :-) At the moment, it shouldn't be possible to request html from rdaregistry.info without getting redirected to www.rdaregistry.info (hosted on github using github pages). Although I'm doing a minimal job of checking the HTTP Accept header. Are you planning on introducing 303-redirects? I'm deeply embarrassed (really) by the fact that the redirect is not a 303 and that it may not be consistent. As well as by the fact that it doesn't return the requested fragment (which I still believe is best practice). So, yeah, as soon as I get back from the ALA Midwinter conference (sooner if I can get some meeting-free time). I'll at least get a 303 redirect header in there (still learning nginx). Oh. I'm going to take a guess that this announcement was pushed out to meet an ALA Midwinter deadline, and therefore was a tad premature. If that's the case (or even if not), why not market it as a beta, collect up the known bugs in a visible place, and (perhaps most importantly) invite the denizens of the W3C Public Linked Open Data mailing list to weigh in on the opaque identifiers vs. meaningful identifiers vs. both opaque + meaningful direction? You want this vocabulary to be adopted and used; it would be really good to have their buy-in to the vision. In my opinion, I think it would be a mistake to continue with the opaque identifiers as the primary identifiers; the vocabulary is almost unreadable as it stands. And I believe they will make communication between people trying to implement it harder, as they continually struggle to translate http://rdaregistry.info/Elements/e/actor to http://rdaregistry.info/Elements/e/P20012 (because you *know* that someone will insist on communicating in opaque identifiers: insert flashbacks to You know, 100 $a $4 act!). If you *really* want to keep the opaque identifiers as an option, you could invert everything so that the owl:sameAs assertions identify the opaque identifier instead, and make the rest of the assertions target the meaningful identifiers. Oh, and on that note there's another technical bug to add to the list: the owl:sameAs assertions appear in the RDF/XML document, but they do not currently appear in the Turtle document.
[CODE4LIB] Job: Educational Technology Librarian at Ohio State University Knowlton School of Architecture
Educational Technology Librarian Ohio State University Knowlton School of Architecture Columbus The Knowlton School of Architecture at The Ohio State University is seeking an Educational Technology Librarian to work with the Architecture, Landscape Architecture and City and Regional Planning sections. Summary of Duties: Supports faculty in the development and delivery of digital media for teaching; produces and promotes online content related to research, teaching and events; collaborates with faculty, students and academic sections to advance educational technology use and learning; ensures sustainable digital asset management and delivery; maintains best practices for media and metadata management; manages archival collections and attendant donor relations; educational technology support includes resources at OSU and new applications as needed; manages large format scanner; promotes responsible use of intellectual property; responsible for preservation of existing digital collections; writes grants to secure additional funding for educational technology; manages budget and student staff; collaborates with OSU community. Required Qualifications: Master's Degree in Library and Information Science, Architecture, Art or related field or an equivalent combination of education and experience; knowledge of Drupal content management system; knowledge of current digital media preservation best practices. Desired Qualifications Excellent writing, editing, and interpersonal skills; experience leading team- based projects; understanding of archival principles; experience in working with imaging and video production; knowledge of and experience with metadata schema, including VRA Core and Dublin Core; grant writing experience; web development experience. Full posting to apply: https://www.jobsatosu.com/postings/52416 Contact: Jeff Shaw, 614/292-5914, shaw@osu.edu Brought to you by code4lib jobs: http://jobs.code4lib.org/job/11711/
Re: [CODE4LIB] Code4Lib 2014 conference t-shirt voting ends tomorrow!
While I'm sure we'd all enjoy presentations by the t-shirts, obviously this is leftovers from the last poll. Please ignore everything after the first two sentences :) On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 10:16 AM, Lisa Rabey academichu...@gmail.comwrote: The wording on the tshirt voting leads one to believe the tshirts are going to be doing presentations. We are the future! For each item, choose the score you wish to assign from 0-3. You may assign scores to as many items as you like. The top 10 proposals with the highest scores will be guaranteed a slot at the conference. Additional presentations will be selected by the Program Committee in an effort to ensure diversity in program content. Community votes will, of course, still weigh heavily in these decisions. -lisa Lisa M. Rabey | @pnkrcklibrarian An Unreliable Narrator: http://exitpursuedbyabear.net Cunning Tales from a Systems Librarian: http://lisa.rabey.net On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 9:00 AM, Josh Wilson joshwilso...@gmail.com wrote: Last call to drop by the Diebold-o-tron to cast your vote: http://vote.code4lib.org/election/29 Voting ends tomorrow, January 24.
[CODE4LIB] Digital asset management system
Greetings, do you have a suggestion or have you had any experience with a digital management system? Thank you in advance, (only open source suggestions please)
[CODE4LIB] World Bank Open Knowledge Repository Introduces Mobile-Friendly Design
*World Bank Open Knowledge Repository Introduces * *Mobile-Friendly Design* *WASHINGTON, January 23, 2013*—In keeping up with the rapid growth in mobile usage worldwide, the World Bank just relaunched the *Open Knowledge Repository (OKR*)—its open access portal to its publications and research—on an upgraded platform specifically optimized for mobile use. The relaunched OKR website, at *http://openknowledge.worldbank.org*http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/, features a “responsive web design” that automatically adapts to the screen size of any device—whether desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. “Knowing that nearly half of OKR users are in developing countries where mobile devices are increasingly being used to access the internet, relaunching the OKR with responsive design was a no-brainer,” said Carlos Rossel, World Bank Publisher. “Now, when users access the OKR from their smartphones or tablets, they will have a greatly improved user experience.” The benefits of this change will ultimately extend well beyond users of the OKR. The World Bank and @mire—the DSpace service provider supporting the development of the OKR—are applying the same responsive design principles in the development of *Mirage 2*https://atmire.com/website/?q=contributions/dspace-mirage-2, a theme for DSpace that will be freely available. *DSpace is the open source platform* http://www.duraspace.org/about_dspace on which the OKR is built, and it is used by more than 1,500 organizations worldwide for their institutional repositories. The OKR upgrade brings other user enhancements such as improved search, related title recommendations, enhanced author profiles, and the adoption of a new Creative Commons license specifically adapted for use by International Governmental Organizations (*CC BY IGO*http://wiki.creativecommons.org/IGO). Currently, more than 13,000 publications are available in the OKR in PDF and text formats. In the future, more file formats will be added, making the mobile experience even more convenient for users. Since the OKR's launch in April 2012, there have been more than 2.6 million downloads of World Bank Group publications from 231* countries and territories around the world. The OKR was recently described by Creative Commons as *“…one of the most important hubs for economic scholarship in the world* http://teamopen.cc/carlos/. It was also selected by the American Library Association as one of the *“Best Free Reference Web Sites of 2013.”*http://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/mars/marspubs/marsbestfreewebsites/marsbestref2013 In coming weeks, the World Bank will also be launching a mobile version of the *World Bank eLibrary* http://elibrary.worldbank.org/—a subscription-based website with special features designed to meet the specific needs of researchers and libraries. Like the standard eLibrary website, the mobile version will supply search results at the chapter-level for its most recent titles, along with several user tools and features, such as individual accounts for saving searches and favorites, and customized content alerts. *According to Google Analytics
[CODE4LIB] Job: Senior Systems Administrator at ProQuest
Senior Systems Administrator ProQuest Ann Arbor ProQuest is seeking a Sr. Systems Administrator. The Senior Systems Administrator in the ProQuest Cloud and Virtual Infrastructure Engineering team is responsible for hands-on design and development of infrastructure components and deployment tools for ProQuest's products in both on-premise VMware infrastructure as well as Amazon AWS. This role is expected to participate in the planning and development of software products, infrastructure, and tooling. This position also provides onsite and on-call support (up to 24x7) of all aspects of the supported IT systems in a mission-critical, revenue generating, and multi-million dollar operating environment. The incumbent has full responsibility and authority to resolve complex system problems from the identification of the problem through its final resolution. Some of what you'll be doing: Guarantees the availability and efficiency of ProQuest's Virtual and Cloud infrastructure. Possess the ability to work under pressure and during off-hours to resolve technical problems, which result in system downtime or degraded service. Support and enhance the virtualization, converged infrastructures, and Cloud deployments supporting ProQuest's online systems including VMware vSphere 4/5, Cisco UCS, and Amazon AWS Develop standards, architectures, and procedures to support the utilization of Cloud infrastructure services to augment ProQuest's capabilities. Must be an independent, self-motivated, detailed oriented and highly organized individual with strong research and problem solving skills capable of managing multiple complex tasks and quickly adapting to changing priorities Proactively develop automated procedures for the ongoing support of systems including any training and support necessary to turn these procedures over to other teams for ongoing fulfillment Monitor systems to insure that automated and manual activities complete successfully, perform planned and unplanned changes in the production environment, provide support for after hours maintenance activities in the production environment. Lead or work as a technical member of project teams which will recommend the proper course of action for the proactive fulfillment of ProQuest's current and future business system's needs Manage the relationship between vendor Technical Staff and ProQuest Work with vendors and other IT groups to resolve issues What you'll need to be successful: 6+ years experience supporting and managing changes in a 24x7 online production environment. 6+ years experience in supporting UNIX Systems (Solaris, RedHat Linux). Demonstrated knowledge of all of the following: Virtualization, TCP/IP, NFS, SAN Storage, troubleshooting multitiered client server systems (preferably centric around VMware, HP Proliant and Cisco UCS servers). Direct experience engineering, managing, and supporting Virtualized infrastructures such as VMware, Xen, KVM, or Amazon AWS. Extensive experience developing infrastructure automation tools and processes. Experience with Puppet, Chef, or other configuration management and deployment tools Experience architecting and supporting applications on public cloud providers such as Amazon AWS. Programming and Shell scripting skills: (Some or all) Python, Ruby, PERL, ksh, bash, csh, C/C++ Experience managing or working on large projects including large shifts in technology. Ability to clearly communicate complex issues, problems and ideas to team members and external department customers Familiarity with the components that comprise an online service infrastructure including UNIX and Windows servers, hubs, routers, data circuits and applications. 2+ years' experience providing 24 x 7 on-call support for highly complex distributed systems consisting of application, relational databases, multiple servers and network components Excellent problem solving and fault diagnosis skills, especially for large complex systems. Ability to work independently and in a team environment generating trust and building alliances with co-workers. Ability to work well under critical time constraints and pressure. Excellent interpersonal and communications skills. Ability to coordinate and prioritize many simultaneous projects and interrupt driven activity simultaneously. Ability to work effectively across department boundaries Ability to demonstrate high integrity and excellent judgment. Ability to assess risk and make timely decisions. Previous experience in a 24 x 7 support pager rotation Bonus Points! Professional certification with RedHat, VMware, HP Proliant, Cisco UCS Go tohttp://www.proquest.com/en- US/aboutus/careers/careers.shtml to apply directly. Here's what you want to know about ProQuest: Fantastic people: Where smart is the norm and unique is welcome Fun location: Restaurants all around, within walking distance to Briarwood Mall, and approximately 3 miles from Downtown Ann
[CODE4LIB] 45th IASA Annual Conference Announcement and Call for Papers
Dear friends and colleagues: We invite you to attend and participate in the 45th IASA (International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives) Annual Conference. *Connecting Cultures: Content, Context, and Collaboration”* Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday 5th — Thursday 9th October 2014 http://2014.iasa-web.org #iasa2014 IASA is gathering in Cape Town at the National Library of South Africa’s Center for the Book for an in-depth look into the issues surrounding sound and audiovisual archives and their mission to preserve our sound and audiovisual heritage. Please join us from Sunday 5th through Thursday 9th October 2014 for our 45th Annual Conference. Cape Town’s warm hospitality, diverse cultural heritage, and breathtaking natural beauty await your arrival and participation in this inspiring event—Connecting Cultures: Content, Context, and Collaboration—where we will explore such topics relevant to sound and audiovisual heritage as: - Content and technologies - Connecting data - Contextualisation and curation - Customer-driven services issues - Crowdsourcing, cataloguing and content management - Curators and creators - Collaborative learning Come to share and discover how these issues are driving commercial, educational, governmental, and private heritage institutions in new and potentially more relevant and sustainable directions. Cape Town welcomes you to the historic national monument and haven for creativity and learning, the Center for the Book, in the South African springtime of this year, to witness new growth that inspires new ideas and adventurous collaboration. The Call for Papers is open now until 28th February 2014. Offers of presentations should be submitted via the online form: http://2014.iasa-web.org/presentation-submission-form Jacqueline von Arb, President, IASA Bruce Gordon, Vice-president, IASA, conference convener: enquir...@iasa-conference.com Bertram Lyons, CA Folklife Specialist / Digital Assets Manager American Folklife Center Library of Congress b...@loc.gov www.loc.gov/folklife Consulting Archivist, Project Manager Dissemination Coordinator Association for Cultural Equity Alan Lomax Archive b...@culturalequity.org www.culturalequity.org Editor International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) edi...@iasa-web.org www.iasa-web.org/iasa-publications
[CODE4LIB] Job: Programmer at LibraryThing
LibraryThing is expanding, and looking for an all-around great PHP programmer to work on LibraryThing.com. The focus is on PHP, MySQL, HTML and CSS, but library-specific technologies and formats are also valuable. You can work where you are, or come into the office in Portland, Maine. Rather than repeat it all here, the job is listed at: http://www.librarything.com/blogs/librarything/2014/01/find-librarything-a-programmer-win-1000-in-books/ In addition, we're offering a $1,000 bounty, paid in books, to anyone who finds us that programmer. You can self-find, and get it yourself, or refer a friend. Best, Tim -- Check out my library at http://www.librarything.com/profile/timspalding
[CODE4LIB] Job: Web Developer and User Interface Designer at University of California, Riverside
Web Developer and User Interface Designer University of California, Riverside Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR) Libraries is seeking nominations and applications for an experienced, energetic, and innovative professional to fill the position of Web Developer and User Interface Designer in the Web Services and Design Unit of the Information Technology and Systems Division. Reporting to the Associate University Librarian for Information Technology and Systems, the Web Developer and User Interface Designer will provide technology services to the UCR University Libraries organization and will have strong graphic design, website, and editorial skills. Duties include, but are not limited to, supporting, designing, and developing internal and public websites, web-based applications, social media sites, and multimedia content. Innovative applications will include new initiatives in digital collections, scholarly communication, and resource discovery. The Web Developer and User Interface Designer will work closely with the Libraries' Web Development Management Team, and will operate by developing, enhancing, testing, and using repeatable and well-documented processes and procedures to achieve an efficient, reliable, and sustainable web services environment. Best practices and security are included in all our efforts. Teamwork, collaboration, and the ability to tactfully communicate and share ideas with an interdisciplinary group of staff, patrons, and colleagues is essential. Our environment is dynamic, challenging, and requires the ability to handle shifting priorities. Occasional efforts outside of normal business hours may be required. Located an hour drive to the east of Los Angeles, an hour drive west of Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, an hour drive east of ocean beaches, an hour and half drive north of San Diego, and an hour's drive south of mountain ski resorts, UCR is located in an area of dramatic landscapes and equally rich cultural traditions. The University is a dynamic, aggressively-developing land grant research institution dedicated to preparing its diverse student body to be successful competitors in the world marketplace of ideas. UCR boasts the first new School of Medicine to open on the West Coast in 43 years; a new School of Public Policy; and the Bourns College of Engineering, ranked 10th in the world according to an international ranking organization. The UCR Libraries is a critical partner in preparing UCR's students to be globally competitive while simultaneously preparing them for careers in the Inland Empire and beyond. The mission of the UCR Libraries is no less than to bring the world's information resources to the UCR community and to ensure that UCR students, faculty, and staff have the skills to fully exploit those resources to change the world for the better. Brought to you by code4lib jobs: http://jobs.code4lib.org/job/11715/
[CODE4LIB] Fwd: [rules] Publication of the RDA Element Vocabularies
Well, the notion of 'beta' is a bit complicated... The vocabularies aren't
beta and shouldn't be regarded as such. They've been well- vetted and
reviewed and various folks, including me, have been working on them for
quite a few years, with plenty of feedback from quite a few 'communities'.
That said, the dereferencing service infrastructure isn't yet quite right,
but we're pretty happy that it mostly works the way need it to right now --
it's not just good, it's good enough. For now.
I've developed a quite strong opinion that vocabulary developers should not
_ever_ think that they can understand the semantics of a vocabulary
resource by 'reading' the URI. Do you have some expectation that in order
for the data to be useful your relational or object database identifiers
must be readable? By whom, and in English? This to me is a frankly colonial
assumption of the dominance of English in the world of metadata. The proper
understanding of the semantics, although still relatively minimal, is from
the definition, not the URI. Our coining and inclusion of multilingual
(eventually) lexical URIs based on the label is a concession to developers
who feel that they can't effectively 'use' the vocabularies unless they can
read the URIs. Go for it. Use them. The machines, if they're configured
correctly, will fetch the correct URI permanently. I grant that writing ad
hoc sparql queries with opaque URIs can be intensely frustrating, but the
vocabularies aren't designed specifically to support that incredibly narrow
use case. If you want to see/use label-based browse use the Open Metadata
Registry (and yes that could be improved too):
http://metadataregistry.org/schemaprop/list/schema_id/81.html
Ultimately I'm not responding on this list to defend decisions that I
didn't personally make, despite the fact that I completely support the
decision.
WRT the bug you mention, please take the trouble to put an issue on GitHub
so we can track it:
https://github.com/RDARegistry/RDA-Vocabularies/issues
...but, the issue isn't that the sameAs assertions don't appear in the
turtle representation, it's that they do appear in the N3 representation
we've published using = (valid N3, invalid turtle), and we don't actually
publish turtle at the moment, even if that's what you ask for. We publish
N3 generated using the very useful RDF translation service:
http://rdf-translator.appspot.com/
...which uses RDFLib to generate N3, and there appears to be a bug in
RDFLib that isn't a bug:
https://github.com/RDFLib/rdflib/issues/218
I haven't had time to effectively research our options, but clearly we need
to either generate both turtle and N3 serializations (my preference), or
just turtle.
Jon
On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 10:50 AM, Dan Scott
deni...@gmail.comjavascript:_e({}, 'cvml', 'deni...@gmail.com');
wrote:
On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 10:08 AM, Jon Phipps
jphi...@madcreek.comjavascript:_e({}, 'cvml', 'jphi...@madcreek.com');
wrote:
Hi Ben,
On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 4:48 AM, Ben Companjen
ben.compan...@dans.knaw.nl javascript:_e({}, 'cvml',
'ben.compan...@dans.knaw.nl');wrote:
Returning an HTML document (or XML document as I get) in
response to a request for an RDA property or class is wrong in the
Linked
Data sense [note 1]. This is explained in the W3C WG Note that you
referred to in recipe 2 [2].
I'm the co-author of that note, so I'm all too familiar with it. :-)
At the moment, it shouldn't be possible to request html from
rdaregistry.info without getting redirected to www.rdaregistry.info(hosted
on github using github pages). Although I'm doing a minimal job of
checking
the HTTP Accept header.
Are you planning on introducing 303-redirects?
I'm deeply embarrassed (really) by the fact that the redirect is not a
303
and that it may not be consistent. As well as by the fact that it doesn't
return the requested fragment (which I still believe is best practice).
So,
yeah, as soon as I get back from the ALA Midwinter conference (sooner if
I
can get some meeting-free time). I'll at least get a 303 redirect header
in
there (still learning nginx).
Oh. I'm going to take a guess that this announcement was pushed out to
meet an ALA Midwinter deadline, and therefore was a tad premature.
If that's the case (or even if not), why not market it as a beta,
collect up the known bugs in a visible place, and (perhaps most
importantly) invite the denizens of the W3C Public Linked Open Data
mailing list to weigh in on the opaque identifiers vs. meaningful
identifiers vs. both opaque + meaningful direction? You want this
vocabulary to be adopted and used; it would be really good to have
their buy-in to the vision.
In my opinion, I think it would be a mistake to continue with the
opaque identifiers as the primary identifiers; the vocabulary is
almost unreadable as it stands. And I believe they will make
communication between people trying to implement it harder, as they
Re: [CODE4LIB] Fwd: [rules] Publication of the RDA Element Vocabularies
Hi Jon, To present the other side of the argument so that others on the list can make an informed decision... On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 4:22 PM, Jon Phipps jphi...@madcreek.com wrote: I've developed a quite strong opinion that vocabulary developers should not _ever_ think that they can understand the semantics of a vocabulary resource by 'reading' the URI. 100% Agreed. Good documentation is essential for any ontology, and it has to be read to understand the semantics. You cannot just look at oa:hasTarget, out of context, and have any idea what it refers to. However if that URI is readable it makes developers lives much easier in a lot of situations, and it has no additional cost. Opaque URIs for predicates is the digital equivalent of thumbing your nose at the people you should be courting -- the people who will actually use your ontology in any practical sense. It says: We don't care about you enough to make your life one step easier by having something that's memorable. You will always have to go back to the ontology every time and reread this documentation, over and over and over again. Do you have some expectation that in order for the data to be useful your relational or object database identifiers must be readable? Identifiers for objects, no. The table names and field names? Yes. How many DBAs do you know that create tables with opaque identifiers for the column names? How many XML schemas do you know that use opaque identifiers for the element names? My count is 0 from many many many instances. And the reason is the same as having readable predicate URIs -- so that when you look at the table, schema, ontology, triple or what have you, there is some mnemonic value from the name to its intent. By whom, and in English? This to me is a frankly colonial assumption of the dominance of English in the world of metadata. In the world of computing in general. for if while ... all English. While there are turing complete languages out there, the ones that don't have real world language constructions are toys, like Whitespace for example. Even the lolcats programming language is more usable than whitespace. Again, it's a cost/value consideration. There are many people who will understand English, and when developers program, they're surrounded by it. If your intended audience is primarily people who speak French, then you would be entirely justified in using URIs with labels from French. Or Chinese, though the IRI expansion would be more of a pain :) The proper understanding of the semantics, although still relatively minimal, is from the definition, not the URI. Yes. Any short cuts to *understanding* rather than *remembering* are to be avoided. Our coining and inclusion of multilingual (eventually) lexical URIs based on the label is a concession to developers who feel that they can't effectively 'use' the vocabularies unless they can read the URIs. So in my opinion, as is everything in the mail of course, this is even worse. Now instead of 1600 properties, you have 1600 * (number of languages +1) properties. And you're going to see them appearing in uses of the ontology. Either stick with your opaque identifiers or pick a language for the readable ones, and best practice would be English, but doing both is a disaster in the making. I grant that writing ad hoc sparql queries with opaque URIs can be intensely frustrating, but the vocabularies aren't designed specifically to support that incredibly narrow use case. Writing queries is something developers have to do to work with data. More importantly, writing code that builds the triples in the first place is something that developers have to do. And they have to get it right ... which they likely won't do first time. There will be typos. That P1523235 might be written into the code as P1533235 ... an impossible to spot typo. dc:title vs dc:titel ... a bit easier to spot, no? So the consequence is that the quality of the uses of your ontology will go down. If there were 16 fields, maybe there'd be a chance of getting it right. But 1600, with 5 digit identifiers, is asking for trouble. Compare MARC fields. We all love our 245$a, I know, but dc:title is a lot easier to recall. Now imagine those fields are (seemingly) random 5 digit codes without significant structure. And that there's 1600 of them. And you're asking the developer to use a graph structure that's likely unfamiliar to them. All in my opinion, and all debatable. I hope that your choice goes well for you, but would like other people to think about it carefully before following suit. Rob
Re: [CODE4LIB] Fwd: [rules] Publication of the RDA Element Vocabularies
On 1/23/14, 4:01 PM, Robert Sanderson wrote: So in my opinion, as is everything in the mail of course, this is even worse. Now instead of 1600 properties, you have 1600 * (number of languages +1) properties. And you're going to see them appearing in uses of the ontology. Either stick with your opaque identifiers or pick a language for the readable ones, and best practice would be English, but doing both is a disaster in the making. Actually, it's more than that. Because, as you see below, for each property there are two URIs, a reg:name, and an rdfs:label. The lexical URI is based on the reg:name not the rdfs:label. So that makes one opaque identifier, one lexical identifer, and two display forms. The reg:name is camel case and condensed, as compared to the label, which is space-delimited words. Both have language designations. The rdfs:label is written as a verb phrase, with either has or is -- a form that I generally find annoying in practice -- while the reg:name is noun-ish. I'm sympathetic to the has form in some situations, such as when reading a triple as a statement, but the verb-enhanced form would seem odd on an input form, for example. Having both could be useful, but since RDF doesn't recognize label types it only works in a closed world. !--Property: has address of the corporate body-- rdf:Description rdf:about=http://rdaregistry.info/Elements/a/P50036; rdfs:isDefinedBy rdf:resource=http://rdaregistry.info/Elements/a/; / reg:status rdf:resource=http://metadataregistry.org/uri/RegStatus/1001; / reg:name xml:lang=enaddressOfTheCorporateBody/reg:name rdfs:label xml:lang=enhas address of the corporate body/rdfs:label skos:definition xml:lang=enRelates a corporate body to the address of a corporate body's headquarters or offices, or an e-mail or internet address for the body./skos:definition rdf:type rdf:resource=http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property; / rdfs:domain rdf:resource=http://rdaregistry.info/Elements/c/C10005; / rdfs:subPropertyOf rdf:resource=http://rdaregistry.info/Elements/u/P60512; / owl:sameAs rdf:resource=http://rdaregistry.info/Elements/a/addressOfTheCorporateBody; / /rdf:Description kc -- Karen Coyle kco...@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net m: 1-510-435-8234 skype: kcoylenet
