Determine a derivative namespace of PROF for the test suite constraints resource

[nicholascar]

This issue was created in the Profiles Ontology document and is listed in it. Once consensus on addressing it is reached here in comments below, the results will be added to the document and the issue closed.

[nicholascar]

How does the W3C allocate more than one namespace to an ont if it needs another for constraint definitions?

[dr-shorthair]

The standard pattern for W3C namespaces is
http://www.w3.org/ns/AAAA[#/] hence http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#, http://www.w3.org/ns/sosa/ etc

There are also 'dated' namespaces like http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core# and http://www.w3.org/2006/time#. Those two are important ones associated with W3C standards, as they were established many years ago, but I believe that the current policy is to use /ns/ URIs for rec-track vocabularies, and dated NSs for more informal products, from community groups, etc (@philarcher @draggett ?)

In the SSN group we also have some derivative NSs such as http://www.w3.org/ns/ssn/systems/, http://www.w3.org/ns/sosa/sampling/, http://www.w3.org/ns/sosa/om#, http://www.w3.org/ns/sosa/prov/ though I'm not sure if any of those is directly dereferenceable (@tidoust ?)

[kcoyle]

This is what I find regarding URIs.

URIs for W3C Namespaces

It's dated 2005 but I don't find anything more recent. It says:

"Groups SHOULD use namespace URIs that have the characteristics of uniqueness.

Director approval is NOT REQUIRED when a namespace URI in a Technical Report has any of the following forms:

http://www.w3.org/ns/ssss
http://www.w3.org/YYYY/MM/ssss
http://www.w3.org/YYYY/ssss"

and...

"The W3C Webmaster allocates and authorizes namespace URIs having the forms listed above."

I believe we should ask @draggett to take any namespace requests to the Webmaster.

[kcoyle]

@nicholascar : "How does the W3C allocate more than one namespace to an ont if it needs another for constraint definitions?"

Nick, can you explain what you mean by "another for constraint definitions?" Maybe an example would do. And we can ask @draggett if he knows or if he can investigate. Thanks.

[tidoust]

I believe that the current policy is to use /ns/ URIs for rec-track vocabularies, and dated NSs for more informal products, from community groups, etc (@philarcher @draggett ?)

Yes, /ns/ is now preferred, and I don't think that there is a strict rule regarding community groups in practice.

In the SSN group we also have some derivative NSs such as http://www.w3.org/ns/ssn/systems/, http://www.w3.org/ns/sosa/sampling/, http://www.w3.org/ns/sosa/om#, http://www.w3.org/ns/sosa/prov/ though I'm not sure if any of those is directly dereferenceable (@tidoust ?)

Yes, they are all directly dereferenceable.

How does the W3C allocate more than one namespace to an ont if it needs another for constraint definitions?

As mentioned by @kcoyle, there is no strong process involved in the creation of namespace URIs that follow one of the allowed forms. The Webmaster will simply allocate the root namespace URIs. What happens within that namespace is up to the group that uses the namespace. For instance, once the group has allocated http://www.w3.org/ns/foo, it can create sub-namespaces such as http://www.w3.org/ns/foo/bar. A bit of love is required to make these sub-namespaces dereferenceable, but that's just a matter of putting the right files and redirection rules on W3C servers.

[nicholascar]

OK, if we are free to implement sub-namespaces with any namespace that's allocated, that will serve the purpose for which I raised this issue, which was to ensure a separate (sub)namespace is available for SHACL constraints for the Profile Ontology (or whatever it will eventually be called) compared to the one used for the main ontology itself.

Closing this Issue as complete given that it is able to be resolved when needed by interactions with the W3C webmaster.