It’s probably worth pointing out that DC elements is a (soon to be deprecated, I think) flavor of DC that’s not really set up for RDF. DC terms[1] has an ontology that explicitly defines the domain and range for many of the predicates and for creator[2], it defines the range as an Agent[3], not a string. In other words, you want a URI representing a typed Thing as an object for dc:creator.

Best, 

Aaron Rubinstein


[1] http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/#H2
[2] http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/#terms-creator
[3] http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/#terms-Agent
On Nov 3, 2013, at 6:05 AM, Esmé Cowles <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Eric-
> 
> I think dc:creator is supposed to take a string instead of an object or URI.  So I think you should use a different predicate, which takes a class as an object.  Then you can have an object that describes Thomas Jefferson and include both his name and gender, links to authority records, etc.:
> 
> <rdf:RDF
>  xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
>  xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
>  xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
>  xmlns:owl="http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#"
>  xmlns:foo="http://foo.org/">
> 
>  <!-- the Declaration Of Independence was authored by Thomas Jefferson, who is male -->
>  <rdf:Description
>    rdf:about="http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html">
>    <dc:creator>Thomas Jefferson</dc:creator>
>    <foo:creator>
>      <foaf:Person rdf:about="http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n79-89957">
>        <foaf:name>Thomas Jefferson</foaf:name>
>        <foaf:gender>male</foaf:gender>
>        <owl:sameAs rdf:resource="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79089957"/>
>      </foaf:Person>
>    </foo:creator>
>  </rdf:Description>
> </rdf:RDF>
> 
> -Esme
> --
> Esme Cowles <[log in to unmask]>
> 
> "Men feared witches and burnt women."
> -- Louis Brandeis, Whitney v.  California, concurring
> 
> On 11/3/2013, at 12:00 AM, Eric Lease Morgan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> How can I write an RDF serialization enabling me to express the fact that the United States Declaration Of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Jefferson was a male? (And thus asserting that the Declaration of Independence was written by a male.)
>> 
>> Suppose I have the following assertion:
>> 
>> <rdf:RDF
>>   xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
>>   xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" >
>> 
>>   <!-- the Declaration Of Independence was authored by Thomas Jefferson -->
>>   <rdf:Description
>>   rdf:about="http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html">
>>         <dc:creator>http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n79-89957</dc:creator>
>>   </rdf:Description>
>> 
>> </rdf:RDF>
>> 
>> Suppose I have a second assertion:
>> 
>> <rdf:RDF
>>   xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
>>   xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/">
>> 
>>   <!-- Thomas Jefferson was a male -->
>>   <rdf:Description rdf:about="http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n79-89957">
>>     <foaf:gender>male</foaf:gender>
>>   </rdf:Description>
>> 
>> </rdf:RDF>
>> 
>> Now suppose a cool Linked Data robot came along and harvested my RDF/XML. Moreover lets assume the robot could make the logical conclusion that the Declaration was written by a male. How might the robot express this fact in RDF/XML? The following is my first attempt at such an expression, but the resulting graph (attached) doesn't seem to visually express what I really want:
>> 
>> <rdf:RDF
>> xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#”
>> xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/“
>> xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/“>
>> 
>> <rdf:Description rdf:about="http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n79-89957">
>>   <foaf:gender>male</foaf:gender>
>> </rdf:Description>
>> 
>> <rdf:Description
>> rdf:about="http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html">
>>   <dc:creator>http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n79-89957</dc:creator>
>> </rdf:Description>
>> </rdf:RDF>
>> 
>> Am I doing something wrong? How might you encode such the following expression — The Declaration Of Independence was authored by Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Jefferson was a male. And therefore, the Declaration Of Independence was authored by a male named Thomas Jefferson? Maybe RDF can not express this fact because it requires two predicates in a single expression, and this the expression would not be a triple but rather a “quadrile" — object, predicate #1, subject/object, predicate #2, and subject?
>> 
>> 
>> —
>> Eric Morgan
>> 
>> [cid:[log in to unmask]]
>> 
>>