Re: [foaf-dev] Question about expressing age using foaf

Quoting Bruce Whealton <[email protected]>:

> I was curious about the bio vocabulary...  It isn't clear from what  
> I've read how terms should be nested.  Some things might be common  
> sense though.  For example, in a genealogy application, or anywhere  
> you use the term, marriage would only contain other terms but would  
> not hold any value in itself, right?  Should this be distinguished  
> from "is married to"?

I'm no expert on bio, but it is clearly a vocabulary for events. There  
is another vocabulary for relationships between people, since these  
are not individual events but ongoing:

http://vocab.org/relationship/.html

which has

http://purl.org/vocab/relationship/spouseOf

Even this will end up being problematic because of course one is a  
spouse over a period of time, so while not a single event it does need  
a time component.

I think a lot changes based on whether you are assuming "now" as the  
timeframe for the validity of your metadata, or whether your metadata  
has a historical view. I'm used to library data where all of the  
descriptions are made by a third party with the goal of documenting  
some "truth" which remains true over time:

John Smith wrote His Book in 1987 while a professor at Oxford

Nothing in this metadata makes any reference to "now." ("John Smith is  
writing His Book now" "John Smith is a professor at Oxford"). FOAF has  
an entirely different view. FOAF (as I read it) is essentially about  
"now" and when things change, one's FOAF description should change.  
Library data may get new statements over time, but older descriptions  
remain valid.

Somewhere there's probably a standard philosophical definition of  
these two viewpoints, and if so, I would greatly appreciate getting a  
pointer to it.

kc

> Immediately, my reaction is that this is obvious because the latter  
> has a value that is a person.  Whereas, marriage is an event and it  
> needs an identifier but what type if value would you use.  Does this  
> make sense that the documentation for a vocabulary should have  
> specifications for this kind of parent-child or container structure?
> Thanks,
> Bruce
>
> Sent from my iPad
> Future Wave Web Design/Development 919-636-5809
> Http://FutureWaveDesigns.com
> Web Technology and Computing Blog:
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>
>
> On May 21, 2011, at 3:50 PM, Karen Coyle <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Quoting "Hogan, Aidan" <[email protected]>:
>>
>>>
>>> The only alternative external property I can find is:
>>>
>>>    http://dbpedia.org/ontology/birthDate
>>>
>>> Hope this helps.
>>
>>
>> You can also use bio (http://purl.org/vocab/bio/0.1/), as we do in the
>> Open Library:
>>
>> <bio:event>
>> <bio:Birth>
>> <dcterms:date>9 July 1901</dcterms:date>
>> </bio:Birth>
>> </bio:event>
>>
>> There is also a date of birth (and date of death) in RDA (Resource
>> description and Access):
>>
>> http://rdvocab.info/ElementsGr2/dateOfBirth
>> http://rdvocab.info/ElementsGr2/dateOfDeath
>>
>> Full date of birth is one of the more common and accurate
>> triangulation points for identity theft and therefore shouldn't be
>> used on open networks.
>>
>> kc
>>
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Aidan
>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: [email protected] [mailto:foaf-dev-
>>>> [email protected]] On Behalf Of Alexander Gödde
>>>> Sent: 21 May 2011 13:13
>>>> To: [email protected]
>>>> Subject: [foaf-dev] Question about expressing age using foaf
>>>>
>>>> First of all - first time mailing on any kind of developer mailing list.
>>>> So somebody please let me know if I'd better mail specific people, or
>>>> there's some other kind of faux pas I'm committing by this.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On to the question:
>>>>
>>>> I want to add some info about the people at Tavendo to the company website
>>>> and the blog. Part of that information is age. I don't care about the
>>>> precise age - being off by a year either way doesn't hurt. It's just that
>>>> I think age gives important information about the background of people,
>>>> and often eases communication because you can make more correct assumption
>>>> about others.
>>>>
>>>> foaf:age serves well in principle, but I don't really want to have to
>>>> update this information. It's just not a very satisfactory solution.
>>>>
>>>> Then I thought about just giving the year of birth for foaf:birthday - but
>>>> this doesn't take a year at all as far as the spec says.
>>>>
>>>> So: Is there any way that I'm missing in which I could give the year of
>>>> birth?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Alexander Gödde
>>>>
>>>> Intellectual Property Professional
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> +49(0)9131 940 3575
>>>>
>>>> +49(0)176 81 032 874
>>>>
>>>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>>>>
>>>> skype: alexander.goedde <skype:alexander.goedde?call>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> tavendo_with_phrase_small
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Tavendo GmbH · Am Weihersbach 13 · 91074 Herzogenaurach · Deutschland
>>>>
>>>> Office / Postanschrift : Waldstrasse 18 · 91054 Erlangen · Deutschland
>>>>
>>>> +49(+)700 GO TAVENDO · +49(0)700 46 828 36 36 · www.tavendo.de
>>>> <http://www.tavendo.de/>
>>>>
>>>> Amtsgericht Fürth · HRB 10365 · USt-Id.Nr DE246462916 · Geschäftsführer
>>>> Tobias Oberstein
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Karen Coyle
>> [email protected] http://kcoyle.net
>> ph: 1-510-540-7596
>> m: 1-510-435-8234
>> skype: kcoylenet
>>
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-- 
Karen Coyle
[email protected] http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet

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