1. The state of KOS in the
Linked Data movement
– the publishing,
management, and
interoperating of KOS
for the Semantic Web
Marcia Zeng
ASIS&T 2012 Annual Meeting
Oct. 2012, Baltimore

2. 1. Value vocabularies in the Linked Data
Hub – CKAN The Data Hub
2. Semantic assets registries
 Asset Description Metadata Schema
(ADMS)
 DCMI Application Profile for KOS
Resource
3. Thesaurus data model and alignment
with SKOS

3. 1. Value Vocabularies
in The Data Hub of
CKAN
http://thedatahub.org/

4. The Data Hub of CKAN (3880 datasets）
• Most notable: Linking Open Data (LOD) group, now
has 327 dataset (2012-10) while the cloud showed
295 (2011-09)
• Other groups see: http://ckan.net/group.
• Including:
• Library Linked Data Group:
（ 57 datasets, mostly link to non-library
datasets）
• Bibliographic Data group（89 datasets）
• Other groups cover almost every areas, big or
small
Available formats：
CSV | RDF | XML | XBRL | SDMX | HTML+RDFa | other
LOD Cloud group
327 datasets

5. Linking Open Data -- dataset cloud (as of 2011-09, dataset: 295)
Including some
value
vocabularies:
• lists,
• dictionaries,
• name
authorities,
• classification
schemes,
• subject
headings,
• thesauri,
• ontologies
• vocabulary
registries
http://richard.cyganiak.de/2007/10/lod/

6. Searching the Data Hub, found over 300
datasets that are value vocabularies or contain
a component of value vocabularies,
Including many
value
vocabularies: "Bioportal"
• lists, found 245
• dictionaries, "vocabularies"
mostly ontologies of
• name found 131
specific domains
authorities,
• classification Exclude 11
also tagged as
schemes, 'structured
120 (various types)
• subject vocabulary"
headings,
• thesauri,
• ontologies
• vocabulary
registries

7. Linked Open Vocabularies
– Subject Vocabularies, Value
Lists
http://id.loc.gov/

8. human-readable
Example: a LCSH entry
at http://id.loc.gov/

9. human-readable
can be
viewed/downloaded in
these formats

10. machine-understandable
Concept
Preferred
label
Alternative
labels

11. Broader
and
narrower
concepts
Matched
concepts in
other
vocabularies

12. Another way
to express
alternative
labels
(SKOS, not
SKOSXL)

13. Concepts --------------------------  Labels
SKOS (Core)
- labels are
properties
of Concept
SKOS +
SKOSXL
- 'Label'
is a Class

15.  DCMI Application Profile for KOS
Resource
 NKOS Task Group
 Asset Description Metadata
Schema (ADMS)
 EU-ISA Programme ADMS WG

16. Unlike many of the published works, almost all
KOS resources need to be continuously developed
to maintain their usability.
In addition to micro-level updates, new versions
with a significant amount of changes may be
regularly released.
The later versions of a KOS scheme are usually
based on previous ones, fully or partially, while
the authorship may also change.

17. KOS are usually not developed or used in
isolation.
Translation, reuse, mapping, re-
alignments, and derivation of the whole
KOS, or a segment are common.
Formats: the content of a thesaurus or a
classification scheme is usually stored in
databases, with available outputs in multiple formats.

19. W
Work
E
Expre
ssion
M
manifes-
tations
The Entities and Relationships

20. Started a FRBR-based general model for
application profiles (@ DC2010)
Did surveys of terminology registries
Common attributes used in eight registries
Analyzed use scenarios and user tasks according
to FRBR + FRSAD models
Proposed a domain model for KOS Resource
Description and Access

21. A proposed
domain model
for KOS
Resource
Description
and Access

22. Final verification of attributes and
relationships
Alignment of the core attributes and
relationships with DCMI terms
Templates for describing KOS
resources in registries
Testing
http://wiki.dublincore.org/index.php
/DCMI_NKOS_Task_Group

23. - created by EU's Interoperability Solutions for
European Public Administrations (ISA) Programme of
the European Commission
- Working group includes 43 people of 20 EU Member
States 2 from the US and Australia
- Released April, 2012.
- Namespace on W3C: http://www.w3.org/ns/adms

24. highly reusable metadata
(e.g. xml schemata, generic data
models)
and/or reference data
(e.g. code
lists, taxonomies, dictionaries, thesau
ri, ontologies, etc.)
- ADMS is a metadata vocabulary to describe
semantic interoperability assets.

25. The Asset Description Metadata Schema (ADMS)
- a common way to describe semantic interoperability
assets making it possible for everyone to search and
discover them once shared through the forthcoming
federation of asset repositories.
Visit ADMS home:
http://joinup.ec.europa.eu/asset/adms/home
Notable users since its publishing in April, 2012:
 W3C's TR (Technical reports) Space
http://www.w3.org/2012/06/tr2adms/
 PoolParty Thesaurus Manager
 W3C’s Government Linked Data WG

27. ISO 25964: Thesauri and interoperability with other
vocabularies
Part 1: Thesauri for information retrieval
 Published Aug. 2011
 Covers monolingual and multilingual thesauri
 Part 2: Interoperability with other vocabularies
 To be published in 2012, in press now
 Covers mapping between thesauri and other
types of vocabulary
28

28. 29
Dextre Clarke and Zeng, 2012. http://www.niso.org/publications/isq/2012/v24no1/clarke/

29. 30

30. ISO 25964 data model <-&->SKOS
The ISO 25964 data model is broadly compatible with SKOS
Greater compatibility awaits SKOS extension to allow for:
- version history
- compound equivalence among terms
- use of concept group and of array
- custom extensions
- specific properties of concepts, terms, notes and
thesaurus that are not covered in SKOS
This and the following 6 slides are based on "Exchanging ISO
25964-1 thesauri data using RDF, SKOS and SKOS-XL"
Presented by Johan De Smedt, NKOS Workshop 2012 at TPDL
https://www.comp.glam.ac.uk/pages/research/hypermedia/
31
nkos/nkos2012/programme2012.html

31. Purpose: Provide a reference framework facilitating
integration and data exchange of ISO 25964 thesaurus data
using RDF as a representation language
Approach: Minimal extensions are made, using SKOS, SKOS-
XL and Dublin Core where possible
Contributors:
ISO TC46 WG 8 - 25964WG:
• Stella Dextre Clarke, Jutta Lindenthal, Marcia Lei Zeng,
Johan De Smedt, Douglas S. Tudhope, Leonard Will
Antoine Isaac: Co-Editor of SKOS Primer and MADS/SKOS
mapping

32. Methodology and Levels of representation
compliance
Always align with the specified SKOS and SKOS-XL
semantics
• SKOS and SKOS-XL semantics are a top level agreement for sharing
KOS information
oSKOS:
Not requiring label relations
Limited concept relationships
oSKOS-XL
Simple label relations
Keep with the iso-25964 proposed extensions patterns
• Compound and simple label relationships, thesaurus
evolution, arrays, groups, notes and facets

33. Extracted from the table Full table at: http://www.niso.org/schemas/iso25964/
http://www.niso.org/schemas/iso25964/corresponden
cesSKOS/
ISO-25964 SKOS/SKOS-XL/extension Remark
ThesaurusConcept skos:Concept
- status iso-thes:status Proposed extension
- isPartOf (Thesaurus) skos:inScheme
- notation skos:notation The datatype of the notation
range is set to distinguish
different types of notations
ThesaurusConcept[ Has special attribute mapping
topConcept=true] (see next 2 rows)
- isPartOf (Thesaurus) skos:topConceptOf
- isTopConceptOf Not explicitly mapped. sub-properties of
(TopLevelRelationship) The relationship may be skos:narrowerTransitive
derived (see remark) having the same domain as
skos:topConceptOf

34. Extracted
ISO-25964 SKOS/SKOS-XL/extension Remark
ThesaurusTerm - rdf:PlainLiteral - preferred simple mapping
- xl:Label - extended mapping to
handle label relationships
PreferredTerm iso-thes:PreferredTerm The restriction of xl:Label to
the range of xl:prefLabel is
only required for expressing
label relations (see
ConpoundEquivalence)
(ThesaurusConcept) - skos:prefLabel
hasPreferredLabel - xl:prefLabel
(PreferredTerm)
CustomTermAttribute requires xl:Label mapping The property name depends
custom RDF property on the customAttributeType
[customAttributeType]

35. Example: ThesaurusArray
- view in ISO Data Model (example – not ordered )
ThesaurusConcept
cups
hasSubordinateArray ThesaurusArray hasMemberConcept
<cups by form>
HierarchicalRelationship (role=NT) ThesaurusConcept ThesaurusConcept
tumblers stemware
HierarchicalRelationship (role=NT)
hasSubordinateArray hasMemberConcept
ThesaurusArray
<cups by function>
HierarchicalRelationship (role=NT) ThesaurusConcept ThesaurusConcept
coffee cups icecream cups
HierarchicalRelationship (role=NT)
images from wikipedia

36. Example: ThesaurusArray
- view in extended SKOS (example – not ordered )
ThesaurusConcept
cups
hasSubordinateArray skos:member
ThesaurusArray
<cups by form>
skos:narrower skos:Concept skos:Concept
tumblers stemware
skos:narrower
hasSubordinateArray skos:member
ThesaurusArray
<cups by function>
skos:narrower
skos:Concept skos:Concept
coffee cups icecream cups
skos:narrower
images from wikipedia

37. "Exchanging ISO 25964-1 thesauri data using RDF, SKOS and SKOS-XL"
Presented by Johan De Smedt, NKOS Workshop 2012 at TPDL
https://www.comp.glam.ac.uk/pages/research/hypermedia/nkos/nkos2012/p
rogramme2012.html
Correspondence between ISO 25964 and SKOS/SKOS-XL models [PDF file]
http://www.niso.org/schemas/iso25964/
The Data Hub.
http://thedatahub.org/
LC Linked Data Service- Vocabularies and authorities.
http://id.loc.gov/
DCMI NKOS Task Group wiki.
http://wiki.dublincore.org/index.php/DCMI_NKOS_Task_Group
ADMS home page.
http://joinup.ec.europa.eu/asset/adms/home