SKOS can handle a variety of knowledge systems including
classification schemes, subject heading systems, thesauri, etc.

As a real world example, the Library of Congress is apparently looking
at representing LCSH in SKOS.

Tom

On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 6:07 PM, Jon Phipps <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi Yitzchak,
>
>  Probably the quickest explanation is to look at the first few slides
>  from a presentation that I gave on SKOS at the Open Forum on Metadata
>  Registries last year...
>  http://www.slideshare.net/jonphipps/skos-2007-open-forum-on-metadata-
>  registries-nyc/
>
>  Currently, SKOS is headed towards being a W3C recommendation. There's
>  a new RFC draft of the SKOS Primer...
>  http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-skos-primer-20080221/
>
>   From the new primer: "SKOS — Simple Knowledge Organisation System —
>  provides a model for expressing the basic structure and content of
>  concept schemes such as thesauri, classification schemes, subject
>  heading lists, taxonomies, folksonomies, and other types of
>  controlled vocabulary. As an application of the Resource Description
>  Framework (RDF) SKOS allows concepts to be documented, linked and
>  merged with other data, while still being composed, integrated and
>  published on the World Wide Web."
>
>  But comparing SKOS to other projects in Libraryland is liable to be
>  anything but quick, imho. There are other standard methods for
>  describing thesauri and vocabularies (Z39.19, ISO2788/5964, BS8723 --
>  and see http://www.w3c.rl.ac.uk/SWAD/thes_links.htm), but none that
>  I'm aware of that are as rdf-centric as SKOS.
>
>  Hope this gives you a better place to start,
>
>  Jon Phipps
>  Cornell University Library
>
>
>
>
>  On Mar 4, 2008, at 9:55 AM, Yitzchak Schaffer wrote:
>
>  > Greetings all:
>  >
>  > Many thanks to all the presenters for a great conference!
>  >
>  > One thing that people kept mentioning was SKOS.  That was a duhh point
>  > for me; I just took a look at the w3.org and Wikipedia pages on it,
>  > but
>  > it doesn't look like something I can spend time trying to figure out
>  > right now. Does anyone have a quick explanation comparing this to
>  > other
>  > projects/concepts in Libraryland?
>  >
>  > Many thanks,
>  >
>  > --
>  > Yitzchak Schaffer
>  > Systems Librarian
>  > Touro College Libraries
>  > 33 West 23rd Street
>  > New York, NY 10010
>  > Tel (212) 463-0400 x230
>  > Fax (212) 627-3197
>  > [log in to unmask]
>