Hi John, no, you have seen correctly that there is no separation between classes and instances. If this brings our model closer to topic maps, then this is convenient.
I have to admit that my knowledge of topic maps is quite limited. As far as I understand it, they are an ISO standard and can be bought here, e.g the data model: < http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=40017 > We will not export our data in a format that has a description that is not available for free. But this is no problem anyway: if I understand topic maps correctly it should be trivial to write a transformer that takes the export that Wikidata will offer and translates it into topic maps, if you are so inclined. This way the topic maps community can be served through that transformer easily, be it a web service or a parser-front-end. Cheers, Denny 2012/4/5 John McClure <jmccl...@hypergrove.com> > ** > Hi Denny - > Thanks for your reply and I am relieved. The design seems in the process > of walking towards looking quite alot like ISO Topic Maps, I must say, > because it designates no wall of separation between classes and topics. > Today that wall exists in SMW in the dichotomy of Category vs > all-other-namespaces, with the problems I've outlined. I'm reading into > your document that there will be no wall - that the topics > describing classes surely will exist in the same 'namespace' as the topics > purported to be instances of these classes. > > Is this correct? If so, then there's less difference between ISO Topic > Maps and your design than what I had origianlly thought. If indeed the > direction of the project (as I detect on this email list) is to associate > pages with classification schemes such as LCSH or many others, then we're > talking about even more an ISO Topic Map orientation. Which brings me back > to the many benefits of a *brutally honest* adoption of the ISO Topic Map > technology. > > Extend & refine it for sure, but imho ISO Topic Map technology is an > excellent fit with wiki implementations. It seems to be what you're > incidentally doing anyway. > cheers - john > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikidata-l mailing list > Wikidata-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata-l > > -- Project director Wikidata Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Eisenacher Straße 2 | 10777 Berlin Tel. +49-30-219 158 26-0 | http://wikimedia.de Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.
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