Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS)

The  Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group, part of the W3C Semantic Web Activity of the W3C has released three draft documents related to the Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS):

• SKOS Core Guide
• SKOS Core Vocabulary Specification
• Quick Guide to Publishing a Thesaurus on the Semantic Web

The drafts explain how to express classification schemes, thesauruses, subject heading lists, taxonomies, terminologies, glossaries and other types of controlled vocabulary in RDF.

I notes these documents due to my interest in establishing more robust terminology glossaries.  Software agents and web services need shared vocabularies to communicate and make contractual service commitments.

 

Without a solid, shared terminology, communication between independent entities is essentially meaningless.

 

-- Jack Krupansky