Scribd
Upload
250 views

SKOS: Simple Knowledge: Organization System

SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System) is a W3C standard for representing controlled vocabularies, taxonomies, and thesauri in RDF. It allows existing controlled vocabularies to be published and consumed on the web. SKOS aims to represent structured knowledge organization systems, like classification schemes, in a way that is understandable to both humans and machines on the semantic web. Controlled vocabularies organize concepts in a structured way using broader and narrower term relationships to facilitate information retrieval.

Uploaded by

Mir Jamal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
250 views

SKOS: Simple Knowledge: Organization System

SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System) is a W3C standard for representing controlled vocabularies, taxonomies, and thesauri in RDF. It allows existing controlled vocabularies to be published and consumed on the web. SKOS aims to represent structured knowledge organization systems, like classification schemes, in a way that is understandable to both humans and machines on the semantic web. Controlled vocabularies organize concepts in a structured way using broader and narrower term relationships to facilitate information retrieval.

Uploaded by

Mir Jamal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 7

SKOS: Simple Knowledge

Organization System
• SKOS, which stands for Simple Knowledge Organization System, is a
W3C standard, based on other Semantic Web standards (RDF and 
OWL), that provides a way to represent controlled vocabularies,
taxonomies and thesauri. Specifically, SKOS itself is an OWL ontology
 and it can be written out in any RDF syntax.

• Before we dive into SKOS, what is the difference between Controlled


Vocabulary, Taxonomy and Thesaurus?
• A controlled vocabulary is a list of terms which a community or organization has
agreed upon. For example: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
Sunday are the days of the week.
• A taxonomy is a controlled vocabulary organized in a hierarchy. For example, we can
have the terms Computer, Tablet and Laptop and the concepts Tablet and Laptop are
subclasses of Computer because a Tablet and Laptop are types of Computers.
• Finally, a thesaurus is a taxonomy with more information about each concept
including preferred and alternative terms (“Computer” in English, “Computador” or
“Ordenador” in Spanish). Additionally a thesaurus may contain relationships to
related concepts. For example, the concepts “Computer” and “Software” have some
type of relationship. Most e-commerce websites, if not all, will have a
taxonomy/thesaurus to help guide users find what they are looking for.
• Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) and associated web
technologies aim to enable preexisting controlled vocabularies to be
consumed on the web and to allow vocabulary creators to publish
born-digital vocabularies on the web.
• Throughout history, classification systems have been widely used in the library community. Knowledge organization systems,
and more specifically controlled structured vocabularies, are a growing area within the field of classification systems. Within a
web context, formats have been proposed for representing controlled vocabularies in a structured way using the web
standards XML and RDF.
• An important distinction needs to be made between controlled vocabularies that have been published to the web and those
that have been published in a structured way specifically for the web. Natural-language vocabularies, such as simple subject
heading lists, thesauri and back-of-the-book indexes are extremely useful for humans, but the meaning that machines can
derive from them is very limited. Linked open data and linked open vocabularies are both Semantic Web technologies that
enable the publishing of controlled vocabularies for the web in such a way that both humans and machines can recognize
meaning (Kaltenböck and Bauer 2012). The creation of linked open vocabularies allows for increased and more meaningful
points of access and discovery, and greater effectiveness in information retrieval.
• A controlled vocabulary allows for organization of some content, or knowledge, such that it can be easily retrieved at a later
time. These vocabularies are “controlled” in that they make use of authorized identification of the content they contain. These
groupings of concepts are carefully selected and described so that the information they contain can be retrieved in the most
intelligent ways possible. Take, for example, the very small collection of terms called the veggie vocab, found in figure 1. This
group of terms about vegetables is listed in alphabetical order. At a glance, one can recognize that the list is comprised of the
names of foods (in English) and the names of species (in Latin). However, the same information can be displayed in a different
way that makes it much easier for people to understand the relationships between the different terms.
• It is easy to see, from the visualization in figure 2, that the
vocabulary is about types of vegetables, Vegetables being
the “top” term in the vocabulary. The terms Bean, Root,
and Gourd are directly below Vegetables. These terms
describe varieties of vegetables. Below this second level
of terms is a group of terms of actual vegetables,
like Potato and Pumpkin. The relationships between
terms are hierarchical—in other words, are broader or
narrower in scope with relation to one another. The two
types of hierarchical relationships in controlled
vocabularies are broader term (BT) and narrower
term (NT). For example, Root is a narrower term in
relation to Vegetables, but a broader term in relation
to Parsnip.

You might also like