Help:Concepts, collections, and schemes
The dwb database schemes are provided as Linked Open Data compliant Semantic MediaWiki representation. The way of representation was originally developed by the TDWG terminology platform. The templates and forms used there are adopted for the Diversity Workbench platform. The main two entities are (a) the "concept", which is here used to describe the definition of a database table column, and (b) the "concept collection", which represents database tables and collect their columns. Each concept rsp. concept collection is described on a separate page and may be therefore directly referenced by its URL. All “concepts” and "concept collections" are realised in an existing DWB database implementation. Nevertheless we might use the "dwb concepts" in the sense of SKOS “as an idea or notion; a unit of thought.” It might also be an option for the future to describe DWB database table columns (concepts) and database tables (concept collections) with additional SKOS properties.
Individual concepts/ database table column are grouped by two methods:
- The concepts, e.g. dwbA:Agent.PlaceOfBirth are assigned to a “scheme”; e.g., class dwbAgents
- For all other groupings of concepts within one defined scheme “concept collections” are available, dwbA:AgentRelation
For the assignment of the dwb database schemes to the Class:Concept scheme and the skos:ConceptScheme, click here, for query dwb concepts click here.
Term versus Concept
Note: The TDWG terminology platform has chosen to use the words “term” and “concept” interchangeably although, strictly, the unit in a vocabulary is a concept to which many labels/terms can be applied, e.g., a single concept can have preferred labels in different languages and while the label/term thus changes, the underlying concept stays the same. The DWB Semantic MediaWiki representation follows this convention. For further explanation see: Information Standards Quarterly by Clarke & Zeng (2012).
