GENERAL TODOS
Not going near the multilingual problem yet, I suggest this for a core API - getConcept(URI uniqueidentifier) getConcept(Literal descriptor, URI thesaurus) getConcept(Literal externalID, URI thesaurus) --> Returns a single 'Concept' datastructure, including all the labels. matchConcepts(String regularExpression) matchConcepts(String regexp, URI thesaurus) --> Returns a list of possible concepts, ordered according to likelihood of match getSupportedSemanticRelations() getSupportedSemanticRelations(URI thesaurus) --> Return a list of supported semantic relations (e.g. broader, narrower, is-a, etc.), each with a unique uri and a description of their meaning. getConceptRelatives(URI conceptURI) getConceptRelatives(Literal descriptor, URI thesaurus) getConceptRelatives(Literal externalID, URI thesaurus) getConceptRelatives(URI conceptURI, SemanticRelation rel) getConceptRelatives(Literal descriptor, URI thesaurus, SemanticRelation rel) getConceptRelatives(Literal externalID, URI thesaurus, SemanticRelation rel) --> Returns list of relatives of concept as specified. This API is designed to be consistent with the way thesaurus data is modelled in the schemas in http://www.w3c.rl.ac.uk/SWAD/deliverables/8.1_0_3.html
We consider the use cases both in terms of human end-user requirements of an online thesaurus (or similar) service, and also of machine-to-machine (M2M) requirements.
1 - Marking up general web resources for exposure in 'the semantic web'
2 - Marking up resources for a specific user community Similar to 1., but where for example the user is a SOSIG (social sciences) cataloguer
3 - Alistair Miles' use case: tool support for better searching and also browsing using web search engines such as Google. By "better searching" we tend to mean improved query recall (i.e. the user's search term is expanded with synonyms/partial equivalents). By browsing we tend to mean support for the user in narrowing down/refining their search term(s) in order to produce greater accuracy/relevancy in search results.
4 - Similar to 3. but in a specialist community environment such as that of a SOSIG end user
5 - Dan Brickley's use case: multilingual IMAGE retrieval (This is the case where a user expresses a query to recall images with embedded metadata, but need their query term to be translated into different languages. Are there overlaps here with the SIMILE use cases?)
6 - Charles McCathieNevile - Multilingual support. Similar to 5, but for a specific community: an end-user requires translation services e.g. for the W3C glossary (this is a requirement for term mappings across languages in specific contexts)
Note 1: At the User Interface level: in many cases the user may require visualisation tools for multiple thesauri cross-walking, for example a tool like Protege. We will make a design decision for deliverable 8.7 regarding whether to use such tools with the demonstrator, or whether to keep the User Interface level out of scope (noting that as this is a prototype web service it would be nice to browse thesaurus data online)
Note 2: Again, at the User Interface level we are aware that the sort of browse and search support indicated by use cases 3 and 4 above might be confusing to the user. For example when using a browse facility to refine a search term, the an end-user may not be clear that they are browsing terms, instead thinking they are browsing resources. And for example when using thesaurus-enabled search support, the user may find result sets to be confusing in that their original search term often will not appear in the results (instead synonyms or partial equivalents). As with Note 1, We will make a design decision for deliverable 8.7 regarding whether to keep User Interface issues in scope or not.
1 - Cross-search support to give ('invisibly') better query recall across a set of data repositories , e.g. this would extend a tool like the JISC-funded Subject Portal Project (SPP) cross-search. [Note 2, above, applies]
2 - Cross-browse support to allow end-users to "seamlessly" browsing a hierarchy of categories represented across a set of available data repositories in order to refine their search terms, for example when 2 or more KOS's have been "federated". This would complement an online subject-specialist service for example, such as complementing the JISC-funded Subject Portal Project (SPP) cross-search, say.
3 - "finding the right thesaurus" (Dave Reynolds suggested this use case), for use in a semantic portal - see "layers on the thesaurus service, point 2 below)
[Note: JISC IE Geo-spatial centralised service - related scenarios?]
4. [Dan Brickley's suggestion - re Bized/Sosig trials and the Desire project] - take two different data services (which for the Desire project were a couple of internet catalogues at ILRT), each using different schemes, and exploit mappings between the taxonomies to merge data into a single environment.