SNaP Stuff Ontology

Created by Press Association, now known as PA Media, and hosted by IPTC with permission from PA Media

Abstract

The Stuff Ontology models real world entities. There are two kinds of stuff: tangibles and intangibles. Tangible stuff includes persons, locations and organizations. Intangibles are abstract concepts such as smoking, feminism or love.

Design Notes

Person and Organization inherit from FOAF classes of the same name in order be used in the Event ontology as foaf:Agents. External datasets such as those for locations can be joined via subclassing. The stuff model is related to the asset model via the Tag ontology. (e.g. the base Stuff class inherits from Tag).
Intangibles are different from nodes within a taxonomy or scheme. Classifications have a more holistic perspective on the association of concepts with an asset (see the Classification Ontology).
The property notablyAssociatedWith allows journalists to associate entities together generically. Through subclassing this association can become more specific. For example, the poet Brendan Behan may be described as being notably associated with the location Dublin but also with the intangibles of drinking and poetry. The relationship with Dublin could be made more specific with placeOfBirth, but drinking might be left as just notablyAssociatedWith. This property captures the ways journalism creates associations with people without being bogged down in an unsustainable and unmanageable detailed relationship. It is enough to say that that stuff is 'notably associated with' other stuff.

Overview Of Terms

An alphabetical index of the ontology terms, divided into classes, properties and individuals. All the terms are hyperlinked to their detailed description for quick reference.

Classes: | Intangible | Tangible | Location | Person | Organization | Stuff

Properties: | longName | dateOfBirth | dateOfDeath | placeOfBirth | shortName | alias | hasAsset | describedBy | hasImage | notablyAssociatedWith | comment | label | name

Ontology Terms

Classes

Object Properties