Introduction to Application Profiles

Jon Phipps: Overview

Karen Coyle: Step-by-Step

Diane Hillmann: Context

Application Profiles

What's an Application Profile?

It's a document


It's a document of an agreement


It's a document of an agreement on a model


It's a document of an agreement on a model of our stuff in the world


It's a document of an agreement on a model of how we describe our things in our world


It's a document of an agreement on a model of how we describe our things in our world

(domain) in the context of the global web of data


Things?

have a formal definition...

Things?

have a formal definition...Every individual in the OWL world is a

member of the class owl:Thing.

Things?

OWL?

Web Ontology Language

OWL?

Web Ontology LanguageA language that can be used to formalize a domain by defining classes, the relations

between them, and properties of those classes

OWL?

Web Ontology Languagecan define the semantics of an Application

Profile

OWL

Semantics?

What we mean when we define a class called 'book' and describe it with a property

called 'title’.

Semantics?

What we mean when we define a class called 'book' and describe it with a property

called 'title'.The 'Semantic Web' is a web of meaning

that uses the RDF model

Semantics?

Resource Description Framework

RDF?

Resource Description Framework

RDF?

Resource Description Framework“is a framework for representing information

in the Web”

RDF?

“has a simple data model that is easy for applications to process and manipulate.”

RDF?

“has a formal semantics which provides a dependable basis for reasoning about the

meaning of an RDF expression.”

RDF?

“URI references are used for naming all … things in RDF.”

RDF?

“is an open-world framework that allows anyone to make statements about any

resource.”

RDF?

“The underlying structure of any expression in RDF is a collection of triples”

RDF?

consist of a subject, a predicate and an object. A set of triples is called an RDF

graph

Triples?

consist of a resource, a property and a value surrogate.

Triples?

Not a value, but some thing that denotes the value

Value Surrogate?

can be a Literal or a non-Literal

Value Surrogate?

Can be a Plain Literal or a Typed Literal

Literal?

Is just a string with an optional (in this case totally unnecessary) language type

Plain Literal: “Samuel Clemens”@en-US

Plain Literal?

A string that must be interpretedTyped Literal:

“27” ^^xsd:integer

Typed Literal?

A string that must be interpretedTyped Literal:

“27” ^^xsd:integerdenotes the number 27

Typed Literal?

A URI that refers to a resource

Non-Literal?

http://RDVocab.info/termList/RDAContentType/1012

Identifies the skos:Concept labeled“sounds”@en-US

In the skos:ConceptScheme identified by the URI

http://RDVocab.info/termList/RDAContentType

Non-Literal?

A resource identifier.

URI?

A globally unique resource identifier.“All URIs share the property that different

persons or organizations can independently create them, and use them to identify

things.”

URI?

A URIthat identifies the property of the subjectof the triple

Predicate?

“Since RDF uses URIs instead of words to name things in statements, RDF refers to a set of URIs (particularly a set intended for a

specific purpose) as a vocabulary”

Predicate?

http://RDVocab.info/Elements/placeOfProduction

identifies the property labeled“Place of production”

in the vocabulary identified byhttp://RDVocab.info/Elements/

Property?

A vocabulary can declare a property to be a subproperty of another property.

Property?

A vocabulary can declare a property to be a subproperty of another property.

This creates a formal relationship between the properties

Property?

Please?

Can we talk about APs now?

• The Classes of resources your metadata is describing

• The Vocabularies that you will use as properties to describe them

An AP defines Semantics

OMGPlease, don’t start that again

Classes?

• Valid value ranges and datatypes for each property

• Valid lists of values (controlled vocabularies) for properties

• Cardinality of each property

An AP defines Syntax

Dublin Core defines this validation profile for each property as a“Statement Template”


A set of Statement Templates is a “Description Set”


An AP can describe multiple Description Sets.

An AP defines…

An AP can describe multiple Description Sets.

The full set of Description Sets is a “Description Set Profile”

An AP defines…

CC:DA Application Profile Intro 52

Application Profiles

Step-by-Step

1/18/2010


1. Domain model

Person

WEMI

Topic

FRBR1/18/2010


2. Determine elements

Work

TitleFormatetc

1/18/2010


3. Identify vocabularies

1/18/2010


Identify vocabularies

1/18/2010


Identify vocabularies

1/18/2010

58CC:DA Application Profile Intro

Do not select elements based on their names or labels

Do select elements based on their definitionsDo pay attention to what values can be usedDon't think that you can select an element

that doesn't quite match your need, and use it anyway

Do think: INTEROPERABILITY

Vocabulary do's & don'ts

1/18/2010


AP

Vocabulary

One vocabulary

1/18/2010


Vocabulary A Vocabulary BAP

More than one vocabulary

1/18/2010


Rolling your own

Vocabulary

AP

1/18/2010


Rolling your own

Vocabulary

AP

All elments must be defined outside of the AP.

1/18/2010


Mandatory/optionalRepeatabilityValues (cannot conflict with defined element)

Free textControlled list of valuesFormatted text (e.g. dates)

"Constraints"

1/18/2010

What is the impact of all this on our world?

The Context for Application Profiles


In the world we knew, interoperability was ensured by “compliance with standards”All of used the same ones in a closed worldData created by humans under strict

guidelinesIn an open world, interoperablity depends on:

Technologies that reach beyond one community

Data built in a variety of ways by people with different ideas of the world

Machines that act broadly based on human oversight

Understanding Interoperability

1/18/2010


We’ve long accepted the limits of requiring upfront consensus to ensure interoperabilityIn a world of APs we can specialize beyond the

core of generally useful dataWe don’t need humans to ‘dumb down’

specialist data to enable sharing and interoperability

Machines can invoke relationships to generalize specialist data when necessary, without removing the value of extended specialized data for specialists

Why This Approach Instead?

1/18/2010


We can’t afford to “go it alone”We can’t afford to ignore the world of data

outside librariesWe can’t afford to create all our data with

humansWe can’t afford NOT to rethink how we

operate

The Value of an Open World

1/18/2010


It’s often free and easily availableIt’s ‘good enough’ (our stuff isn’t perfect

either)It takes us where we can’t go with our

current dataIt’s maintained by someone else We can choose to use data or not, APs allow

us to document that use, automate the process, and expose the data to others

What’s Out There? Data!

1/18/2010


Records can be aggregated from statements when we need them

Statement-based data can be managed and improved more easily than record-based data

Statement-based data can carry provenance for each statement, allowing quality decisions to be made at a more granular level

Changing Our Data Management Ideas

1/18/2010


Getting From Here to There

1/18/2010


The RDA VocabulariesThe principles of extension inherent in the

RDF Vocabulary standards usedOur experience in building and using data

Using What We Already Know

1/18/2010


Proliferating our ideas and experience with bibliographic data to the broader Web world

Using newer technology to achieve more efficiency, transparency, and functionalityIf retrenchment is the only answer, the end

point is zeroSaving our precious human resources to

think, evaluate, ensure quality, and innovate

To Build Ourselves a New Future

1/18/2010


We can map it in a variety of ways for a variety of uses

We can still use MARC as a [lossy] exchange format as long as we need itIt offers insufficient flexibility as the basis for a

new data world inter-connected to the WebWe can use our skills and our understanding

of bibliographic description to lead the way forward

What About Our Legacy Data?

1/18/2010


Specialist communities are already thinking about what they need that RDA doesn’t provideUsing the extensibility of RDF vocabularies

allows them to choose from a number of options Moving proposals through the RDA processExtending the vocabularies through their

community domainChosing the extension option reflects the

reality that consensus has its limits, and specialist data may be better managed at a different level

Some Concrete Suggestions

1/18/2010


With Application Profiles we can:Document our decisions clearlyMeasure compliance with our own intentionsExpress our decisions in a machine-actionable wayMake connections with other data communities by re-

using their data semanticsRDA expresses this ideal in its stated goals

What Do We Gain?

1/18/2010


Less one-at-a-time creation and more data design, data improvement, data evaluation

Ability to look at our contrained resources and reduced budgets as the opportunity to reinvent ourselves

Rethinking Our Role

1/18/2010


Guidelines for Dublin Core Application Profileshttp://dublincore.org/documents/profile-guideli

nes/

RDA Vocabularieshttp://metadataregistry.org/rdabrowse.htm

Thanks! Links! Questions?

1/18/2010

http://dublincore.org/documents/profile-guidelines/

http://dublincore.org/documents/profile-guidelines/

http://metadataregistry.org/rdabrowse.htm

Technology

Introduction to Application Profiles