Scope of Profiling with SHACL

[nicholascar]

What is the scope of the Profiling with SHACL part of the Profiling specification?

This issue replaces Issue #223.

[ajnelson-nist]

I think scope would cover:

• Using SHACL to implement a "null" profile of a non-SHACL model (concept is sketched in PR 549)
• I'm still a little fuzzy on if this is the intended use of "Profile" for us, but possibly this: Using SHACL to implement a data model with no new concepts---only borrowed concepts from other models, with prescriptions on how the classes and properties interact. The other models' totalities do not necessarily need to be included.

Here is a use case, which, having typed it out, doesn't feel quite right for the scoping of "Profiling": Someone just wants foaf:depicts and the immediately-necessary classes from its domain and range, and the entirety of some bird taxonomy for an ornithology picture gallery.

Critique on this being "Profiling": It's a focused import of just parts of two external models. The bird taxonomy might be drawn from a larger "Tree of life" taxonomy (and let's just assume it's RDF already). There's more in FOAF than pictures and depiction. However, this just feels like a model, and I'm not sure what about using SHACL in this would induce a "Profile." Feedback and corrections most welcome.

[VladimirAlexiev]

I think the main scope of Profiling with SHACL is how to provide technical implementations for Application Profiles (DX-PROF and similar profiles).
A use capital letters below so you can comment on specific points.

A: Such profiles:

• use common/shared ontologies ("use-case-free" definitions)
• and allow specifying application and use-case-specific data exchange schemas on top of these ontologies (sets of NodeShape definitions).
• Here's an illustration from a recent commercial requirement (on top are 3 use-case-specific profiles, on the bottom are use-case-free definitions):

B: OGC Building Blocks: https://ogcincubator.github.io/bblocks-docs/
@rob-metalinkage or @nataschake or @avillar, can you please elaborate?
It is a masterful way to interlink ontologies, shapes, JSON schemas, contexts, examples, markdown specs/narratives... in a way they are amenable for reuse in other specs.
It is also a CI framework where you can build examples/data (Semantic Uplifting, using JSONLD contexts, SHACL Rules, and jq queries) then validate them using JSON Schema and SHACL.

• https://ogcincubator.github.io/bblocks-docs/
• https://ogcincubator.github.io/bblocks-tutorial/
• https://ogcincubator.github.io/bblocks-skos/: an example

T: Use case from SOLID: https://shapetrees.org/.
To develop a LD app like a calendar, you need to describe many correlated entity types and the links between them.
@ericprud , can you please elaborate?

C: The Electrical CIM uses a number of Profiles (eg Equipment, Dynamics, Steady-State solution, etc).
These consist of ontologies that reuse lower-level ontology Modules (the same term may be reused by multiple profiles),
and have SHACL shapes to perform additional validations (eg about cardinality, format etc).
Each instance file complies to one profile.
@Sveino or @griddigit-ci, can you please elaborate?

D: Use case from interoperability: DCAT and its profiles:

• DCAT-AP for EU (data.europa.eu)
• GeoDCAT-AP for geospatial
• StatDCAT-AP for statistics
• HCLS profile for life sciences (https://www.w3.org/TR/hcls-dataset/, https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2331)
• MLDCAT-AP for Machine Learning
• DCAT-DE, DCAT-SE, DCAT-NO for country profiles

V: Use case from thesauri (eg Getty Vocabularies; Canada's Nomenclature of Museum Cataloging):

• serve original data, which is GVP (and maps to SKOS + SKOS-XL + ISO 25964). See https://vocab.getty.edu/doc/#Hierarchical_Relations_Inference for a feel of these ontologies
• serve SKOS + SKOS-XL + ISO 25964
• serve SKOS + SKOS-XL (by reducing iso:broaderGeneric/Partitive/Instantive to skos:broader)
• serve plain SKOS (by reducing xl:prefLabel/xl:literalForm to skos:prefLabel, etc))

S: Potentially related issues at sparql-dev

• DESCRIBE using Shapes sparql-dev#39
• CONSTRUCT GRAPH sparql-dev#31

@nicholascar I think we first need a "Profiling with SHACL UCR" to list use cases like the above and provide motivation?

• In addition to the profiles spec https://www.w3.org/TR/dx-prof/
• I just found this Guidance https://w3c.github.io/dxwg/profiles/, what can you tell us about it?
• Is there a Profiles UCR?

[VladimirAlexiev]

@ajnelson-nist I'm doing some reading on B and I stumbled upon https://ogcincubator.github.io/bblocks-stac/ (SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog).
Its register https://ogcincubator.github.io/bblocks-stac/build/register.json mentions your Cyber-Domain-Ontology.
Do you know anything about this?

[ajnelson-nist]

Oh, interesting. No, I didn't know about that B resource, but I am one of the developers of the resource they're referencing.

[rob-metalinkage]

Hi - reach out to me to discuss the Building Blocks - these are a CI/CT layer on top of specifications that support profiling and combining them and expression of the ecosystem of specifications as a knowledge graph....

In this case I went looking for SHACL for PROV - and this is a "straw man" for testing that a PROV extension to the STAC schema successfully maps to the PROV ontology (this is a non-trivial piece of JSON-LD gymnastics - so testing is vital)

We have projects underway in OGC where we intend to integrate pyLODE with BuildingBlocks for ontologies and binding (profiling) ontologies and JSON-LD with vocabularies. So feel free to ask questions or suggest improvements.

Also the DX-PROF WG is up for recharter - so any improvements to the PROF vocabulary can be considered.

[VladimirAlexiev]

@nicholascar was also key in DX_PROF; now he chartered the SHACL 1.2 WG and is chairing the SHACL Profiling sub-WG.
We're trying to figure out what's the relation of SHACL Profiling to Application Profiles, Building Blocks, OTL & STL...

@rob-metalinkage, you been talking to me about BB for half a year, but I started reading only now, and I begin grokking them...

• I wouldn't describe them as "CI/CT layer", though they also do that:
  build examples/data (Semantic Uplifting, using JSONLD contexts, SHACL Rules, and jq queries) 
  then validate them using JSON Schema and SHACL.
• I'd describe them as a masterful way to interlink ontologies, shapes, JSON schemas, contexts, examples, markdown specs/narratives... in a way they are amenable for reuse in other specs.
• Rob, would you please join the SHACL Profiling sub-WG?

C: ElectricalCIM has a word for this: SchemaOps (see https://github.com/statnett/Talk2PowerSystem/wiki/ModelOps-SchemaOps-MLOps): I'll ask them to take a look at this issue and OGC BB.

[rob-metalinkage]

@VladimirAlexiev - you are 100% correct - and its nice to have someone who can see this level of detail !

That said - we welcome feedback, criticisms, suggestions for improvements - for example how to best describe different types of dependencies - the differences between partOf, profileOf , "extends" etc.

I have spoken to @nicholascar today - he is going to explore the charter overlap between DX-PROF and SHACL Shapes, and I'll join when this is clearer - but will track in the meantime. This is a short term bandwidth issue, not a lack of interest.

PS CIM *Ops is an interesting link - thx.