CIDOC-CRM may be the answer here. I will look over the documentation in
greater detail tomorrow.

Thanks,
Ethan
On Apr 8, 2012 7:56 PM, "Ethan Gruber" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> The data is modeled, but I want to use an ontology for geographic concepts
> that already exists, if possible.  If anything, my issue highlights the
> point that linked data can be *too* flexible.
> On Apr 8, 2012 3:54 PM, "Michael Hopwood" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> I think this highlights the point that, at some point, you have to model
>> the data.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
>> Ethan Gruber
>> Sent: 08 April 2012 15:44
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Representing geographic hiearchy in linked data
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Thanks for the info, but it's not quite what I'm looking for.  We've
>> established authority control for ancient places, but I'm looking for an
>> ontology I can use to describe the child:parent relationship between city
>> and region or region and larger region (in any way that isn't
>> dcterms:partOf).  Geonames has defined their own vocabulary that can't
>> really be reused in other geographic contexts, e.g. with gn:countryCode,
>> gn:parentCountry.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Ethan
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 11:40 AM, Karen Coyle <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> > Also, there is Geonames (http://www.geonames.org), which is the
>> > primary geographic data set on the Semantic Web. Here is the link to
>> Athens:
>> >
>> > http://www.geonames.org/**search.html?q=athens&country=**GR<http://www
>> > .geonames.org/search.html?q=athens&country=GR>
>> >
>> > kc
>> >
>> >
>> > On 4/6/12 4:54 PM, Karen Miller wrote:
>> >
>> >> Ethan, have you considered Getty's Thesaurus of Geographic Names?  It
>> >> does provide a geographic hierarchy, although the data for Athens
>> >> they provide isn't quite the one you've described:
>> >>
>> >> http://www.getty.edu/vow/**TGNHierarchy?find=athens&**
>> >> place=&nation=&prev_page=1&**english=Y&subjectid=7001393<http://www.g
>> >> etty.edu/vow/TGNHierarchy?find=athens&place=&nation=&prev_page=1&engl
>> >> ish=Y&subjectid=7001393>
>> >>
>> >> This vocabulary is available in XML here:
>> >>
>> >> http://www.getty.edu/research/**tools/vocabularies/obtain/**index.htm
>> >> l<http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/obtain/index.html>
>> >>
>> >> I have looked at it but not used it; it's a big tangled mess of XML.
>> >>
>> >> MODS mimics a hierarchy (the subject/hierarchicalGeographic element
>> >> has these children: continent, country, province, region, state,
>> >> territory, county, city, island, area, extraterrestrialArea,
>> >> citySection). The VRA Core location element provides a similar mapping.
>> >>
>> >> I try to stay away from Dublin Core, but I did venture onto the DC
>> >> Terms page just now and saw TGN listed in the vocabulary encoding
>> >> schemes there, so probably someone has implemented it.
>> >>
>> >> Karen
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Karen D. Miller
>> >> Monographic/Digital Projects Cataloger Bibliographic Services Dept.
>> >> Northwestern University Library
>> >> Evanston, IL
>> >> [log in to unmask]
>> >> 847-467-3462
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> -----Original Message-----
>> >> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]**EDU<
>> [log in to unmask]>]
>> >> On Behalf Of Ethan Gruber
>> >> Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2012 12:49 PM
>> >> To: [log in to unmask]
>> >> Subject: [CODE4LIB] Representing geographic hiearchy in linked data
>> >>
>> >> Hi all,
>> >>
>> >> I have a dilemma that needs to be sorted out.  I'm looking for an
>> >> ontology that can describe geographic hierarchy, and hopefully someone
>> on
>> >> the list has experience with this.  For example, if I have an RDF
>> record
>> >> that describes Athens, I want to point Athens to Attica, and Attica to
>> >> Greece, and so on.  The current proposal is to use dcterms:partOf, but
>> the
>> >> problem with this is that our records will also use dcterms:partOf to
>> >> describe a completely different type of relational concept, and it
>> will be
>> >> almost impossible for scripts to recognize the difference between
>> these two
>> >> uses of the same DC term.
>> >>
>> >> Thanks,
>> >> Ethan
>> >>
>> >
>> > --
>> > Karen Coyle
>> > [log in to unmask] http://kcoyle.net
>> > ph: 1-510-540-7596
>> > m: 1-510-435-8234
>> > skype: kcoylenet
>> >
>>
>