KRSMS Semantic Annotation Language

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This page describes an interchange syntax that can be used to express semantics types.

KR/SMS Semantic Types

A semantic type classifies and constrains the semantic, as opposed to structural interpretation of a resource. Datasets, actors (also known as services), and actor input and output ports are examples of resources that may have semantic types within SEEK.

A semantic type is expressed as a set of semantic annotations. A semantic annotation assigns objects of a resource a "meaning" via ontology expressions (that is, using ontology terms), thus serving to "link" or "glue" a portion of a resource to a portion of an ontology. In this way, the semantic interpretation of a resource (its semantic type) is built from the annotations of its parts.

Semantic types can be expressed using the following XML representation:

<sms:SemanticType id="..." xmlns:sms="http://seek.ecoinformatics.org/sms">
 
   <sms:Label name="..." resource="..."/>

   ...

   <sms:Annotation object="..." meaning="..."/>

   ...

</sms:SemanticType>

A semantic type is required to have a unique identifier, given using the id attribute. The identifier should (preferably) be represented as an LSID, where the semantic type is managed as an LSID data object.

Labels

Labels within semantic-type descriptions provide a mechanism to name the resources and ontology terms (which we also consider "resources") used in the annotations. The Label element assigns the name attribute value as the name, or "tag," for the associated resource given by the resource attribute value (this attribute value is the associated identifier for a resource). Each Label tag is required to have exactly one name and resource attribute. A SemanticType element must have at least one Label sub-element identifying a resource and one Label element identifying an ontology term. Further, no two Label elements within a semantic type may have the same value for the name attribute.

Annotations

An annotation asserts that an object of a resource has a particular meaning according to definitions within an ontology. The object and meaning attributes of an Annotation element are where the object and ontology expressions are placed within an annotation, respectively.

• How to give the annotation of a resource as a dl-style expression, preferably in the same language
• Discuss/explain what a resource dentoes, e.g., is it a name that denotes a set of instances (e.g., a dataset/table name denotes a set of instances, where an instance is a row in the table). What about for actors?
• Discuss/explain that the "structure" language is generic and can represent many data models (ptolemy types, relational, even xml).
• Describe the language step-by step, without a grammar :)

Examples