NewsML-G2 2.35

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11. Concepts and Concept Items

11.1. Introduction

Concepts in NewsML-G2 are a method of describing real-world entities, such as people, events and organisations, and also to describe thoughts or ideas: abstract notions such as subject classifications, facial expressions. Using concepts, we can classify news, and the entities and ideas found in news, to make the content more accessible and relevant to people’s particular information needs.

Content originators who make up the IPTC membership constantly strive to increase the value proposition of their products. The need to extract and properly express the meaning of news using concepts is a major reason for moving to NewsML-G2.

Clear and unambiguously-defined concepts enable receivers of information to categorize and otherwise handle news more effectively, routing content and archiving it accurately and quickly using automated processes.

NewsML-G2 Concepts are powerful because they bring meaning to news content in a way that can be understood by humans and processed by machines. The concept model aligns with work being done at the W3C and elsewhere to realize the Semantic Web.

Concepts are conveyed individually in Concept Items, or (more commonly) are collected as groups of Concepts in Knowledge Items. These can be collections with a common purpose, such as Controlled Vocabularies.

This Chapter gives details of the Concept element that is common to both types of Item, and also describes the Concept Item. The Chapter Knowledge Items, succeeding this one, describes Knowledge Items in detail.

Concepts are also used to convey event information, which is described in detail in Events in NewsML-G2.

11.2. What is a Concept?

A NewsML-G2 Concept is anything about which we can be express knowledge in some formal way, and which may also have a named relationship with other concepts:

  • "Mario Draghi" is a concept about which, or whom, we can express knowledge, for example, date of birth (September 3, 1947), job title (President of the European Central Bank).

  • "The European Central Bank" is a concept. It has an address, a telephone number, and other inherent characteristics of an organisation.

  • We can express a named relationship: "Mario Draghi" is a member of "The European Central Bank" NewsML-G2 concept expressions thus conform with an RDF triple of subject, predicate and object

Concepts are either global in scope, when they are identified by a URI using a @uri, optionally taking the format of a QCode attribute @qcode, or their scope is local to the containing document when identified by a string value using @literal (where permitted) The use of @literal identifier is a special case that matches the identifier of an <assert> in the NewsML-G2 document that contains a localised concept structure. See 20.2 The Assert Wrapper for more details. This Chapter describes Concepts identified by QCodes and URIs.

11.3. Creating Concepts – the <concept> element

The <concept> element contains the properties that express the concept in detail and identify it so that it can be used and re-used:

11.3.1. Concept ID <conceptId>

A concept MUST contain a <conceptId> which takes the form of a QCode (@qcode) attribute. Optionally the full URI may be added using a @uri. If the URI resolved from the @qcode is not the same as the @uri value, then the URI resolved from the @qcode takes precedence. Optionally, this can be refined using date-time for @created and @retired.

<concept>
    <conceptId created="2009-01-01T12:00:00Z" qcode="ex-foo:bar" />
    ...
</concept>

When a concept is created the @created attribute SHOULD be defined for the <conceptId>; there is no @created attribute at the <concept> level, as its creation is coincident with the mandatory <conceptId>.

Any change to a <concept>, including to its descendant properties, should be reflected in the @modified attribute of the property being updated, and in the @modified attribute of the <concept>.

Even though <conceptId> supports the @modified attribute, the <conceptId> should NOT be modified; if there is the need for a <conceptId> to be updated, the existing concept should be retired, and a new <conceptId> created.

When a concept is retired by use of the @retired attribute of <conceptId>, the authority behind the concept is indicating that it is no longer actively using this concept (for example it may have been merged with another concept), but resources that were created before the change must continue to be able to resolve the concept.

11.3.2. Concept Name <name>

A concept MUST contain at least one <name>, a natural language name for the concept, with optional attributes of @xml:lang and @dir (text direction):

<concept>
    <conceptId qcode="ex-foo:bar" />
        <name>Mario Draghi</name>
</concept>

Concepts are designed to be useable in multiple languages:

<concept>
    <conceptId created="2000-10-30T12:00:00+00:00" qcode="medtop:01000000" />
    <type qcode="cpnat:abstract" />
    <name xml:lang="en-GB">arts, culture and entertainment</name>
    <name xml:lang="de">Kultur, Kunst, Unterhaltung</name>
    <name xml:lang="fr">Arts, culture, et spectacles</name>
    <name xml:lang="es">arte, cultura y espectáculos</name>
    <name xml:lang="ja-JP">文化</name>
    <name xml:lang="it">Arte, cultura, intrattenimento</name>
</concept>

11.3.3. Concept Type

The optional <type> element expresses the "nature of the Concept", for example, using the recommended IPTC Concept Nature NewsCodes to identify this concept is of type "abstract". We can also use <related> to extend this notion into further characteristics of the concept (see Relationships between Concepts, below).

<type> demonstrates the use of the subject, predicate, object triple of RDF to express a named relationship with another concept; <type> can only express one kind of relationship – "is a(n)". It is used to express the most obvious, or primary, inherent characteristic of a concept, as in:

arts, culture and entertainment (Subject) is a(n) (Predicate) abstract concept (Object):

<type qcode="cpnat:abstract" />

The current types agreed by the IPTC and contained in the "concept nature" CV at http://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/cpnature/ are:

  • abstract concept (cpnat:abstract),

  • person (cpnat:person),

  • organisation (cpnat:organisation),

  • geopolitical area (cpnat:geoArea),

  • point of interest (cpnat:poi),

  • object (cpnat:object)

  • event (cpnat:event).

11.3.4. Concept Definition

The optional <definition> element allows more extensive natural language information with some mark-up, if required. Block type elements may use an optional @role QCode to differentiate repeating Definition statements such as "summary" and "long":

<definition xml:lang="en-GB" role="ex-definitionrole:short">
    Matters pertaining to the advancement and refinement of the human mind,
    of interests, skills, tastes and emotions
</definition>

Note that although much of this information could be, and may be, duplicated in machine-readable XML, it is still useful to carry some core information in human-readable form.

11.3.5. Note

The <note> element may be used to add supplemental natural-language information on the concept as a block of text with some optional mark-up, again with an optional @role:

<note>
    This is a top-level concept from the IPTC Media Topic NewsCodes
</note>

11.4. Conveying Concepts: the Concept Item structure

A Concept Item conveys knowledge about a single concept, whether a real-world entity such as a person, or an abstract concept such as a subject. It shares the basic structure of all NewsML-G2 Items and therefore uses the same methods for identification and versioning.

Item Metadata is mandatory and contains the mandatory properties for Item Class, Provider and Version Created (note that Publication Status is optional but the Item’s publication status must be assumed to be the default "usable" if the property is absent).

Content Metadata is optional and is not included in this example:

Note the <itemClass> property for a Concept Item must use the IPTC Concept Item Nature NewsCodes with a recommended Scheme Alias of "cinat" and denotes this Item conveys a NewsML-G2 Concept.

11.4.1. Completed Concept Item

This example is a Concept Item that describes one of the IPTC Media Topic NewsCodes:

LISTING 10: Abstract Concept conveyed in a NewsML-G2 Concept Item

All Scheme Aliases used in the listing below indicate IPTC NewsCodes vocabularies.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<conceptItem 
    xmlns="http://iptc.org/std/nar/2006-10-01/"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://iptc.org/std/nar/2006-10-01/ 
        ./NewsML-G2_2.35-spec-All-Power.xsd"
    guid="urn:newsml:iptc.org:20080229:ncdci-subjectcode"
    version="18" 
    standard="NewsML-G2" 
    standardversion="2.35"
    conformance="power">
    <catalogRef
        href="http://www.iptc.org/std/catalog/catalog.IPTC-G2-Standards_41.xml" />
    <rightsInfo>
        <copyrightHolder>
            <name>IPTC International Press Telecommunications Council, 20 Garrick Street, London WC2E 9BT, UK</name>
        </copyrightHolder>
        <copyrightNotice>Copyright 2025, IPTC, www.iptc.org, All
            Rights Reserved</copyrightNotice>
    </rightsInfo>
    <itemMeta>
        <itemClass qcode="cinat:concept" />
        <provider qcode="nprov:IPTC" />
        <versionCreated>2025-11-07T12:35:21+01:00</versionCreated>
        <firstCreated>2008-02-29T12:00:00+00:00</firstCreated>
        <pubStatus qcode="stat:usable" />
        <title xml:lang="en">Concept Item delivering a concept requested from the IPTC Media Topic NewsCodes</title>
    </itemMeta>
    <concept>
        <conceptId created="2000-10-30T12:00:00+00:00" qcode="medtop:01000000" />
        <type qcode="cpnat:abstract" />
        <name xml:lang="en-GB">arts, culture and entertainment</name>
        <name xml:lang="de">Kultur, Kunst, Unterhaltung</name>
        <name xml:lang="fr">Arts, culture, et spectacles</name>
        <name xml:lang="es">arte, cultura y espectáculos</name>
        <name xml:lang="ja-JP">文化</name>
        <name xml:lang="it">Arte, cultura, intrattenimento</name>
        <definition xml:lang="en-GB">Matters pertaining to the advancement and refinement 
            of    the human mind, of interests, skills, tastes and emotions</definition>
        <definition xml:lang="de">Sachverhalte, die die Veränderung und Weiterentwicklung
            des menschlichen Geistes,    der Interessen, des Geschmacks, der Fähigkeiten und 
            der Gefühle betreffen.</definition>
        <definition xml:lang="fr">Tout ce qui est relatif à la création d'œuvres, au
            développement des facultés intellectuelles, et à leur représentation
            publique</definition>
        <definition xml:lang="es">Asuntos pertinentes al avance y refinamiento de la mente
            humana, intereses, habilidades, gustos y emociones.</definition>
        <definition xml:lang="ja-JP">
            人間の精神や興味、技能、嗜好、感情の進歩や洗練に関係する事柄</definition>
        <definition xml:lang="it">Creazione e rappresentazione dell'opera d'arte, gli 
            Interessi intellettuali, il gusto e le emozioni umane</definition>
        <note xml:lang="en-GB">
            This is a top-level concept from the IPTC Media Topic NewsCodes 
        </note>
    </concept>
</conceptItem>

11.5. Concepts for real-world entities

For each of the types of named entities agreed by the IPTC: person, organisation, geographical area, point of interest, object and event, there is a specific group of additional properties. The following example is a Concept Item for a person.

11.5.1. Document Structure

The document structure is as previously described, with a root <conceptItem> element and <itemMeta>. The <contentMeta> element is optional and may only contain Administrative metadata properties, such as <contentModified> (not included in the example)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<conceptItem xmlns="http://iptc.org/std/nar/2006-10-01/"
    guid="urn:newsml:iptc.org:20080229:ncdci-person"
    version="1010181123618"
    standard="NewsML-G2"
    standardversion="2.35"
    conformance="power">
    <catalogRef
        href="http://www.iptc.org/std/catalog/catalog.IPTC-G2-Standards_41.xml"
    />
    <rightsInfo>
        <copyrightHolder>
            <name>IPTC - International Press Telecommunications Council, 20 Garrick Street, London WC2E 9BT, UK</name>
        </copyrightHolder>
        <copyrightNotice>Copyright 2025, IPTC, www.iptc.org, All
        Rights Reserved</copyrightNotice>
    </rightsInfo>
    <itemMeta>
        <itemClass qcode="cinat:concept" />
        <provider qcode="nprov:IPTC" />
        <versionCreated>2025-11-07T12:38:18Z</versionCreated>
        <firstCreated>2008-12-29T11:00:00Z</firstCreated>
        <pubStatus qcode="stat:usable" />
        <title xml:lang="en">Concept Item describing Mario Draghi</title>
    </itemMeta>

11.5.2. Top-level concept details

The <concept> wrapper starts with the properties common to all types of concepts:

<concept>
    <conceptId created="2009-01-10T12:00:00Z" qcode="ex-people:329465"/>
    <type qcode="cpnat:person" />
    <name xml:lang="en-GB">Mario Draghi</name>
    <definition xml:lang="en-GB" role="ex-definitionrole:biog">
        Mario Draghi, born 3 September 1947,
        is an Italian banker and economist who succeeded Jean-Claude Trichet as the
        President of the European Central Bank on 1 November 2011. He was previously
        the governor of the Bank of Italy from January 2006 until October 2011.
        In 2014 Forbes nominated Draghi 9th most powerful person in the world.<br />
    </definition>
    <note xml:lang="en-GB">
        Not Mario D’roggia, international powerboat racer
    </note>
    <related rel="ex-relation:occupation" qcode="ex-jobtypes:puboff" />
        <sameAs type="cpnat:person" qcode="ex-pers:567223">
            <name>DRAGHI, Mario</name>
        </sameAs>
    ....
</concept>

Note the inclusion of Concept Relationship properties: the <related> element indicates that the person who is the subject of the concept "has occupation of" the related concept expressed in by the @qcode "ex-jobtypes:puboff". The <sameAs> element indicates that this concept is the same as AFP’s (note: fictitious) concept expressed by the @qcode "ex-pers:567223".

11.5.3. Person details

The <personDetails> element is a container for additional properties that are specifically designed to convey information about people:

Born <born> and Died <died>

The date of birth and date of death of the person, for example:

<born>1947-09-03</born>

The data type is "TruncatedDateTime", which means that the value is a date, with an optional time part. The date value may be truncated from the right to a minimum of YYYY. If used, the time must be present in full, with time zone, and ONLY in the presence of the full date.

<born>1947</born>
Affiliation <affiliation>

An affiliation of the person to an organisation.

<affiliation type="ex-orgnat:employer" qcode="ex-org:ECB">
    <name>European Central Bank</name>
</affiliation>

Note that the @type refers to the type of organisation – not the type of relationship with the person. In the example we use scheme "orgnat" to describe the Nature of the Organisation as a Bank.

Contact Info <contactInfo>

Contact information associated with the person. The <contactInfo> element wraps a structure with the properties outlined below. A "person" concept may have many instances of <contactInfo>, each with @role indicating their purpose, or example work or home. These are controlled values, so a provider may create their own CV of address types if required. The IPTC NewsCodes for the roles of parts of <contactInfo> is http://cv.iptc.org/newscodes/contactinfopartrole/ with a recommended scheme alias of "ciprol" (used in the example below)

Each of the child elements of <contactInfo> may be repeated as often as needed to express different @roles, for example different "office" and "mobile" phone numbers.

Property Name Element Type Notes

Email Address

<email>

Electronic Address

An “Electronic Address” type allows the expression of @role (QCode) to qualify the information, for example: <email role=“addressrole:office”> info@ecb.eu </email>

Instant Message Address

<im>

Electronic Address

<im role=“imsrvc:reuters”> jc.trichet.ecb.eu@reuters.net </im>

Phone Number

<phone>

Electronic Address

Fax Number

<fax>

Electronic Address

Web site

<web>

IRI

<web role=“webrole:corporate”> www.ecb.eu </web>

Postal Address

<address>

Address

The Address may have a @role to denote the type of address is contains (e.g. work, home) and may be repeated as required to express each address @role.

Other information

<note>

Block

Any other contact-related information, such as “annual vacation during August”

For example:

<contactInfo>
    <email role="ciprol:office">info@ecb.eu</email>
    <im role="ctech:rm">president.ecb.eu@reuters.net</im>
    <phone role="ciprol:office">+49 69 13 44 0</phone>
    <phone role="ciprol:mobile">+49 69 13 44 60 00</phone>
    <web>www.ecb.eu</web>
    <address role="ciprol:office">
        <!--  see below  -->
    </address>
</contactInfo>
Postal address <address>

The Address Type property may have a @role to indicate its purpose, The following table shows the available child properties. Apart from <line>, which is repeatable, each element may be used once for each <address>

Property Name Element Type Notes/Example

Address Line

<line>

Internationalized string

As many as are needed

Locality

<locality>

Flexible Property

May be a URI, QCode or Literal value, or no value with a <name> child element

Area

<area>

Flexible Property

Country

<country>

Flexible Property

Postal Code

<postalCode>

World Region

<worldRegion>

Flexible Property

For example:

<address role="ciprol:office">
    <line>Postfach 16 03 19</line>
    <locality>
        <name>Frankfurt am Main</name>
    </locality>
    <country qcode="iso3166-1a2:DE">
        <name xml:lang="en">Germany</name>
    </country>
    <postalCode>D-60066</postalCode>
    <worldRegion qcode="ex-maxmindcc:EU">Europe</worldRegion>
</address>

11.5.4. Putting it together

The complete concept listing for this example:

LISTING 11: Person Concept conveyed in a NewsML-G2 Concept Item

All Scheme Aliases used in the listing below indicate IPTC NewsCodes vocabularies, except for the following alias values: ex-definitionrole, ex-imsrvc ex-jobtypes, ex-maxmindcc, ex-orgnat, ex-org, ex-pers and ex-relation.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<conceptItem
    xmlns="http://iptc.org/std/nar/2006-10-01/"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://iptc.org/std/nar/2006-10-01/ 
        ./NewsML-G2_2.35-spec-All-Power.xsd"
    guid="urn:newsml:iptc.org:20080229:ncdci-person"
    version="18" 
    standard="NewsML-G2" 
    standardversion="2.35"
    conformance="power">
    <catalogRef
        href="http://www.iptc.org/std/catalog/catalog.IPTC-G2-Standards_41.xml" />
    <rightsInfo>
        <copyrightHolder>
            <name>IPTC - International Press Telecommunications Council, 20 Garrick Street, London WC2E 9BT, UK</name>
        </copyrightHolder>
        <copyrightNotice>Copyright 2025, IPTC, www.iptc.org, All
            Rights Reserved</copyrightNotice>
    </rightsInfo>
    <itemMeta>
        <itemClass qcode="cinat:concept" />
        <provider qcode="nprov:IPTC" />
        <versionCreated>2025-11-07T12:38:18Z</versionCreated>
        <firstCreated>2008-12-29T11:00:00Z</firstCreated>
        <pubStatus qcode="stat:usable" />
        <title xml:lang="en">Concept Item describing Mario Draghi</title>
    </itemMeta>
    <concept>
        <conceptId created="2009-01-10T12:00:00Z" qcode="ex-people:329465" />
        <type qcode="cpnat:person" />
        <name xml:lang="en-GB">Mario Draghi</name>
        <definition xml:lang="en-GB" role="ex-definitionrole:biog">
            Mario Draghi, born 3 September 1947,
            is an Italian banker and economist who succeeded Jean-Claude Trichet as the
            President of the European Central Bank on 1 November 2011. He was previously
            the governor of the Bank of Italy from January 2006 until October 2011. In 2013
            Forbes nominated Draghi 9th most powerful person in the world.<br />
        </definition>
        <note xml:lang="en-GB" role="ex-nrol:disambiguation">
            Not Mario D’roggia, international powerboat racer
        </note>
        <related rel="ex-relation:occupation" qcode="ex-jobtypes:puboff" /> 
        <sameAs type="cpnat:person" qcode="ex-pers:567223">
            <name>DRAGHI, Mario</name>
        </sameAs>
        <personDetails>
            <born>1947-09-03</born>
            <affiliation type="ex-orgnat:employer" qcode="ex-org:ECB">
                <name>European Central Bank</name>
            </affiliation>
            <contactInfo>
                <email role="ciprol:office">info@ecb.eu</email>
                <im role="ex-imsrvc:reuters">president.ecb.eu@reuters.net</im>
                <phone role="ciprol:office">+49 69 13 44 0</phone>
                <phone role="ciprol:mobile">+49 69 13 44 60 00</phone>
                <web>www.ecb.eu</web>
                <address role="ciprol:office">
                   <line>Kaiserstrasse 29</line>
                   <locality>
                       <name>Frankfurt am Main</name>
                   </locality>
                   <country qcode="iso3166-1a2:DE">
                       <name xml:lang="en">Germany</name>
                   </country>
                   <postalCode>D-60311</postalCode>
                </address>
            </contactInfo>
        </personDetails>
    </concept>
</conceptItem>

11.6. More real-world entities

11.6.1. Organisation Details <organisationDetails>

A concept of type "organisation" may hold the following additional properties:

Founded <founded> and Dissolved <dissolved>

The date of foundation / dissolution of the organisation, equivalent to born/died for a person, for example

<founded>1998-06-01</founded>

Or

<founded>1998</founded>

See note on Truncated Date Time Property Type

Location <location>

A place where the organisation is located, expressed as Flexible Property, NOT an address, repeated as many times as needed. For example:

<location type="loctyp:City" qcode="ex-poi:75001">
    <name>Paris</name>
</location>
Contact Information <contactInfo>

Contact information associated with the organisation, uses the same structure as described in Contact Information.

11.6.2. Geopolitical Area Details <geoAreaDetails>

A "geoArea" concept may have the following additional properties:

Position <position>

This expresses the coordinates of the concept using the following attributes:

Attribute Name Attribute Type Notes/Example

Latitude

@latitude

XML Decimal

The latitude in decimal degrees

Positive value = north of the Equator

Negative value = south of the Equator

Longitude

@longitude

XML Decimal

The longitude in decimal degrees

Positive value = east of the Greenwich Meridian

Negative value = west of the Greenwich Meridian

Altitude

@altitude

XML Integer

The absolute altitude in metres with reference to mean sea level

GPS Datum

@gpsdatum

XML String

The GPS datum associated with the position measurement, default is WGS84
Founded

The Date and optionally the time plus time zone, that the geopolitical area was founded

<founded>1998</founded>
Dissolved

The Date and optionally the time plus time zone, that the geopolitical area was dissolved.

11.6.3. Point of Interest <poiDetails>

A Point of Interest (POI) is a place "on the map" of interest to people, which is not necessarily a geographical feature, for example concert venue, cinema, sports stadium. As such is has different properties to a purely-geographical point. POI may have the additional properties listed below.

Address

The location of the point of interest expressed as a postal address. The <address> element is a wrapper for child elements described in Postal Address In this context, the address is expressly the location of the POI, whereas the <address> wrapper when used as a child of <contactInfo> (see Contact Information) expresses the address of the entity who should be contacted about the POI, which could be an office some distance away.

Position <position>

The coordinates of the location as described in Position

Opening Hours <openHours>

The opening hours of the POI are expressed as a Label type, which is an internationalized string – a natural language expression – extended to include @role if required. Example:

<openHours>9.30am to 5.30pm, closed for lunch from 1pm to
2pm</openHours>
Capacity <capacity>

The capacity of the POI is expressed as a Label:

<capacity>10,000 seats</capacity>
Contact Information <contactInfo>

Contact information for the POI uses the <contactInfo> structure as described in Contact Information. It expresses who should be contacted regarding the POI. This could be an organisation located miles away from the location of the POI.

Access details <access>

Methods of accessing the POI, including directions. This is a Block type of element, allowing some mark-up and may be repeated as often as needed:

<access role="ex-traveltype:public">
    The Jubilee Line is recommended as the quickest route to ExCeL London. At Canning
    Town change to the DLR (upstairs on platform 3) for the quick two-stop journey
    to Custom House for ExCeL Station.
</access>
<access role="ex-traveltype:road">
    When driving to ExCeL London follow signs for Royal Docks, City Airport and ExCeL
    There is easy access to the M25, M11, A406 and A13.
</access>
Detailed Information <details>

Detailed information about the location of the POI expressed as a Block type:

<details>Room M345, 3rd Floor</details>
Creation of POI <created>

The date (and optionally a time) on which the Point Of Interest was created.

<created>2016-06-23</created>
Destruction or teardown of POI <ceasedToExist>

The date (and optionally a time) on which the Point Of Interest ceased to exist; perhaps in reference to a temporary POI:

<ceasedToExist>2016-06-23</ceasedToExist>

11.6.4. Object Details <objectDetails>

Objects that may be expressed as a concept include works of art, books, inventions and industrial artefacts. The IPTC provides three properties for Objects as part of NewsML-G2, but as with any of the types of concept discussed, providers are able to extend the standard. Note these are properties of the object described by the Concept, NOT properties of <itemMeta> which apply to the Concept Item conveying the Concept. The standard additional properties of an Object concept are:

Creation Date <created>

The date and, optionally, the time and time zone when the object was created. Non-repeatable.

<created>1994-06-14</created>
Creator <creator>

A party (person or organisation) that created the object, expressed as a Flexibly Property type. Repeatable.

<creator type="cpnat:organisation" qcode="ex-nyse:ba">
    <name>The Boeing Company</name>
</creator>

In this case, the object is a Boeing 777 airliner.

Any necessary copyright notice for claiming the intellectual property of the object. A repeatable Label type:

<copyrightNotice role="ex-iprole:company>
    Copyright 2025 Boeing Aircraft, all rights reserved
</copyrightNotice>

11.7. Relationships between Concepts

This is a group of four properties, <broader> <narrower> <related> and <sameAs> that enable the creation of particular types of relationship to another concept. For example, our subject was born in Rome. We could create a concept for Rome as follows, with a <broader> property that denotes that the city as part the region of Lazio:

<concept>
    <conceptId qcode="ex-urban:roma" />
    <type qcode="cpnat:geoArea" />
    <definition role="ex-definitionrole:short">
        Rome (Italian: Roma) is a city and special commune
        (named "Roma Capitale") in Italy. Rome is the capital of Italy and also
        homonymous province and of the region of Lazio.<br />
    </definition>
    <broader type="cpnat:geoArea" qcode="ex-locale:lazio">
        <name xml:lang="en">Lazio (region)</name>
    </broader>
</concept>

<narrower> expresses the reverse relationship. A concept for Rhône could have a <narrower> property linking it to Lyon, and a <broader> link to the concept of its parent region, or to the concept of the country, France.

<sameAs> allows the provider to inform the recipient that this concept has an equivalent concept in some other taxonomy. For example, we may know that AFP’s knowledge base of people has an entry for Mario Draghi that can be referenced using the appropriate alias.

<sameAs type="cpnat:person" qcode="ex-AFPpers:567223">
    <name>DRAGHI, Mario</name>
</sameAs>

The sameAs property also assists inter-operability because it can be used to enable recipients to choose the CV, or standard, they employ.

For example, the document may have a concept for Germany identified by the provider’s QCode "ex-country:de". Some recipients may have standardized on using ISO-3166 Country Codes to classify nationality. The provider can assist recipients to make a direct reference to their preferred scheme using "sameAs":

<sameAs qcode="iso3166-1a2:DE" />
<sameAs qcode="iso3166-1a3:DEU" />
<sameAs qcode="ex-iso3166n:276" />

<related> allows the expression of a relationship with another concept that cannot be expressed using <broader>, <narrower>, or <sameAs>. For example, the "European Central Bank" may be "related to" "Mario Draghi" – thus the ECB concept may include:

<related rel="ex-relation:hasPresident" type="cpnat:person" qcode="ex-people:329465">
    <name>Mario Draghi</name>
</related>

The nature of the relationship is expressed using @rel; the example above indicates that the European Central Bank "has a President" Mario Draghi. This relationship must be part of a CV of relationships, which might include "has a CEO", "has a Finance Director". The IPTC recommends that the <related> property should always contain a @rel.

The property may be extended by adding @rank, a numeric ranking of the current concept amongst other concepts related to the target concept.

For example, if the European Central Bank is the second most important concept related to Mario Draghi, amongst other concepts related to him, we can express this as follows:

<related rank="2" rel="ex-relation:hasPresident" type="cpnat:person" qcode="ex-people:329465">
    <name>Mario Draghi</name>
</related>

The <related> property also allows the expression of quantitative values, for example a share price or a sport score, in addition to the concept relationships described above.

The three attributes of <related> that enable this feature are @value, @valueunit and @valuedatatype. Implementers can type the @value by applying an XML Schema datatype, and optionally to declare the units of the value (e.g. the currency) using @valueunit and @valuedatatype.

For example, to express scores in a sports game where the named team won by 4 goals to 2 and gained 3 points:

<concept xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <conceptId qcode="ex-ukprem:WBA" />
    <name>West Bromwich Albion</name>
    ...
    <related rel="ex-crel:scoreFor" value="4"
        valueunit="ex-valunits:goals"
        valuedatatype="xs:nonNegativeInteger" />
    <related rel="ex-crel:scoreAgainst" value="2"
        valueunit="ex-valunits:goals"
        valuedatatype="xs:nonNegativeInteger" />
    <related rel="ex-crel:pointsAdded" value="3"
        valueunit="ex-valunits:points"
        valuedatatype="xs:nonNegativeInteger" />
    ...
</concept>

A further example expresses a recommendation from an analyst in the financial markets where the EUR changes from 39 to 44 (expressed as a value), and the rank changes from Hold to Buy (expressed as a value or QCode):

<concept xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    ...
    <related rel="ex-crel:price_new" value="44"
        valueunit="iso4217a:EUR"
        valuedatatype="xs:decimal" />
    <related rel="ex-crel:price_old" value="39"
        valueunit="iso4217a:EUR"
        valuedatatype="xs:decimal" />
    <related rel="ex-crel:rank_old" value="Hold"
        valueunit="ex-valunits:trRanks"
        valuedatatype="xs:string" />
    <related rel="ex-crel:rank_new" value="Buy"
        valueunit="ex-valunits:trRanks"
        valuedatatype="xs:string" />
    <related rel="ex-crel:rank_new" qcode="ex-trRanks:Buy" />
        ...
</concept>

The attributes of <related> are optional: @qcode and @uri may be used on their own or together, OR @literal, OR @value may be used. ALL of @qcode, @uri, @literal, AND @value may be omitted if a blank node with just a @rel is used, e.g. as a wrapper node.

The @value has a datatype XML Schema String. If using @value, a @valuedatatype MUST also be used and its datatype must be one of the data types defined by the W3C XML Schema specification. The inclusion of @valueunit is optional, for example if @rel="ex-crel:noOfSiblings" and @value="2" the type of units is obvious.

11.8. Supplementary information about a Concept

Links can be used to enhance the information carried by a NewsML-G2 Concept. For example, a Concept may represent a person in the news; it may also contain some key facts about the person and relationships to other concepts (e.g. membership of an organisation). Links to other resources can also be used to add articles, pictures and other objects to the Concept.

However, the use of <link> as a child of <itemMeta> in a Concept Item would create a problem if a number of Concept Items containing Links were to be aggregated into a Knowledge Item: only the content of the <concept> wrapper would be carried across into the Knowledge Item and the Concept Item Metadata and any Links, would be lost.

To resolve this issue, a <remoteInfo> property may be added to <concept>, with a datatype of Link1Type, matching that of <link>. This enables implementers to provide links to supplementary information inside the <concept> wrapper, and thus into a Knowledge Item:

<concept>
    <conceptId created="2009-01-10T12:00:00Z" qcode="ex-people:329465"/>
    <type qcode="cpnat:person" />
    <name xml:lang="en-GB">Mario Draghi</name>
    <definition xml:lang="en-GB" role="ex-definitionrole:biog">
        Mario Draghi, born 3 September
        1947, is an Italian banker and economist who succeeded Jean-Claude Trichet
        as President of the European Central Bank on 1 November 2011.<br />
    </definition>
    <related rel="ex-relation:occupation" qcode="ex-jobtypes:puboff" />
    <remoteInfo "link" start
        rel="irel:seeAlso"
        contenttype="image/jpeg">
        residref="tag:acmenews.com,2008:TX-PAR:20090529:JYC90" // Item ref
        <title>ECB official portrait picture of Mario Draghi</title>
    </remoteInfo> "link" end
    <personDetails>
        <born>1942-12-20</born>
    ....
        <contactInfo role="ex-contactrole:official">
    ....
        </contactInfo>
    </personDetails>
</concept>

Using the rules given in [Hints and Extension Points] when adding properties of the target NewsML-G2 Item, the parent property must be included if it is not from either <contentMeta> or <itemMeta>. For example, a <description> element extracted from <contentMeta> (no parent needed):

<remoteInfo
    rel="irel:seeAlso"
    contenttype="video/mpeg">
    residref="tag:acmenews.com,2008:TX-PAR:20090529:JYC90"
    <description>
        ECB official video of Mario Draghi working with senior colleagues at the Bank
    </description>

Contrast with a <description> from <partMeta>, which must be included as the parent element:

<remoteInfo>
    <partMeta partid="part1" seq="1"
        <description>The first part shows...</description>
    </partMeta>
    <partMeta partid="part2" seq="2"
        <description>The second part shows...</description>
    </partMeta>
</remoteInfo>

11.8.1. Faceted Concepts

The elements <mainConcept> and <facetConcept> are members of the Flex1ConceptPropType which is currently used by <genre> and <subject>.

This enables faceted concepts to be expressed as a combination of a main concept (which requires a facet) and another concept which provides the facet to the main concept, for example:

<subject>
    <mainConcept qcode=”medtop:20001057”>
        <name xml:lang="en">alpine skiing</name>
    </mainConcept>
    <facetConcept qcode=”aspfacetvalue:women”>
        <name xml:l-ng="en">women</name>
    </facetConcept>
    <facetConcept qcode=”aspfacetvalue:slalom-alpineskiing”>
        <name xml:lang="en">alpine skiing slalom</name>
    </facetConcept>
</subject>

Faceted concepts were added to the IPTC Media Topics taxonomy in 2017, hence the requirement to support this in NewsML-G2.

Standard taxonomies of sports facets and values are provided by the IPTC to support interoperability. These are a Sport Facet CV and a Sport Facet Value CV.

11.9. Concepts in Practice

The more common method of exchanging Concepts is as part of a Controlled Vocabulary (otherwise known as Taxonomy, Thesaurus, Dictionary, for example), which are conveyed in NewsML-G2 as a set of concepts in a Knowledge Item. This is discussed in Knowledge Items.

The use of Concepts to convey Event information is discussed in Events in NewsML-G2.

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