1.1 Status of this document

This document and RDF serializations of the Service Ontology (service.ttl in RDF/Turtle and service.owl in RDF/XML) are based on a source file written in Pandoc Markdown syntax, managed with makespec. Sources and updates are available at http://github.com/dini-ag-kim/service-ontology.

This is version 0.1.0rev2, last modified at 2013-11-21 with revision f2d3a57.

The current version of this ontology is a preliminary draft for open discussion. Feedback is welcome!

Revision history

• 2013-11-21 19:47:37 +0100: fixed github URL
• 2013-11-19 09:34:13 +0100: initial draft, split from SSSO

1.2 Namespaces and ontology

The URI namespace of the Service Ontology is http://purl.org/ontology/service#. The namespace prefix service is recommended. The URI of this ontology as a whole is http://purl.org/ontology/service.

The following namespace prefixes are used to refer to related ontologies:

@prefix gr:      <http://purl.org/goodrelations/v1#> .
@prefix schema:  <http://schema.org/> .
@prefix owl:     <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix rdfs:    <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .
@prefix dctype:  <http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/> .
@prefix vann:    <http://purl.org/vocab/vann/> .
@prefix voaf:    <http://purl.org/vocommons/voaf#> .
@prefix foaf:    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
@prefix vs:      <http://www.w3.org/2003/06/sw-vocab-status/ns#> .
@prefix xsd:     <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
@prefix cc:      <http://creativecommons.org/ns#> .

The Service Ontology is defined in RDF/Turtle as following:

@prefix service: <http://purl.org/ontology/service#> .
@base            <http://purl.org/ontology/service> .

<> a owl:Ontology, voaf:Vocabulary ;
    dcterms:title "Service Ontology"@en ;
    vann:preferredNamespacePrefix "service" ;
    vann:preferredNamespaceUri "http://purl.org/ontology/service#" ;
    dcterms:description "A micro-ontology that defines the general concept of a service."@en ; 
    dcterms:modified "2013-11-21"^^xsd:date ;
    owl:versionInfo "0.1.0rev2" ;
    cc:license <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/> ;
    dcterms:creator "Jakob Voß" 
.

3.1 Service

A service is some action that is done for someone.

Each instance of a Service is also an instance of gr:ProductOrService from GoodRelations Vocabulary, schema:Product from Schema.org Vocabulary and of dctype:Service from the DCMI Metadata Terms.

service:Service a owl:Class ;
    rdfs:label "Service"@en ;
    rdfs:subClassOf gr:ProductOrService, dctype:Service ;
    rdfs:seeAlso schema:Product ;
    rdfs:isDefinedBy <> .

A service can be connected to one or more ServiceProvider with property providedBy and to one or more ServiceConsumer with property consumedBy.

3.2 ServiceProvider

A service provider is an entity that is responsible for providing a Service. Typical providers, such as organizations and people, are also instances of foaf:Agent and gr:BusinessEntity but the Service Ontology does not put any constraints on the nature of providers.

service:ServiceProvider a owl:Class ;
    rdfs:label "ServiceProvider"@en ;
    rdfs:seeAlso foaf:Agent, gr:BusinessEntity ;
    rdfs:isDefinedBy <> .

3.3 ServiceConsumer

A service consumer is an entity that requests or consumes a Service. Typical consumers, such as organizations and people, are instances of foaf:Agent and gr:BusinessEntity but the Service Ontology does not put any constraints on the nature of consumers.

service:ServiceConsumer a owl:Class ;
    rdfs:label "ServiceConsumer"@en ;
    rdfs:seeAlso foaf:Agent, gr:BusinessEntity ;
    rdfs:isDefinedBy <> .

3.4 ServiceLimitation

A service limitation is some obstacle that may limit the use of a Service. For instance the purchase of guns and drugs is limited to consumers with special permission. Another example is providing a different product or activity than originally requested. Services and limitations are connected to each other with properties limits and limitedBy.

service:ServiceLimitation a owl:Class ;
    rdfs:label "ServiceLimitation"@en ;
    rdfs:isDefinedBy <> .

4.1 provides

Relates a ServiceProvider instance that provides a Service instance to this service.

service:provides a owl:ObjectProperty ;
    rdfs:label "provides"@en ;
    rdfs:domain service:ServiceProvider ;
    rdfs:range service:Service ;
    owl:inverseOf service:providedBy ;
    rdfs:isDefinedBy <> .

The existence of a provides relationship between a ServiceProvider and a Service often implies the existence of an offer (gr:Offering and/or schema:Offer) but this implication is no mandatory part of the Service Ontology:

#   { ?p service:provides ?s } <=> 
#   { ?p a gr:BusinessEntity ; 
#        gr:offers [
#          a gr:Offering , schema:Offer ;
#          gr:includesObject ?s
#       ]
#   }

4.2 providedBy

Relates a Service instance that is provided by a ServiceProvider instance to this service provider.

service:providedBy a owl:ObjectProperty ;
    rdfs:label "providedBy"@en ;
    rdfs:domain service:Service ;
    rdfs:range service:ServiceProvider ;
    owl:inverseOf service:provides ;
    rdfs:isDefinedBy <> .

4.3 consumes

Relates a ServiceConsumer instance that consumes a Service instance to this service.

service:consumes a owl:ObjectProperty ;
    rdfs:label "consumes"@en ;
    rdfs:domain service:ServiceConsumer ;
    rdfs:range service:Service ;
    owl:inverseOf service:consumedBy ;
    rdfs:isDefinedBy <> .

4.4 consumedBy

Relates a Service instance that is consumed by a ServiceConsumer instance to this service consumer.

service:consumedBy a owl:ObjectProperty ;
    rdfs:label "consumedBy"@en ;
    rdfs:domain service:Service ;
    rdfs:range service:ServiceConsumer ;
    owl:inverseOf service:consumes ;
    rdfs:isDefinedBy <> .

4.5 limits

Relates a ServiceLimitation instance that limits a Service instance to this service.

service:limits a owl:ObjectProperty ;
    rdfs:label "limits"@en ;
    rdfs:domain service:ServiceLimitation ;
    rdfs:range service:Service ;
    owl:inverseOf service:limitedBy ;
    rdfs:isDefinedBy <> .

4.6 limitedBy

Relates a Service instance that is limited by a ServiceLimitation instance to this service limitation.

service:limitedBy a owl:ObjectProperty ;
    rdfs:label "limitedBy"@en ;
    rdfs:domain service:Service ;
    rdfs:range service:ServiceLimitation ;
    owl:inverseOf service:limits ;
    rdfs:isDefinedBy <> .

4.7 delay

This property can be used to specify an estimated period of time or a date when a delayed Service is expected to take place. Applications SHOULD use values in the range of xsd:duration, xsd:date, xsd:dateTime, or the special value “unknown” to indicate a significant delay of unknown duration. The range may later be extended to a subset of Extended Date/Time Format (EDTF).

service:delay a owl:DatatypeProperty ;
    rdfs:label "delay"@en ;
    rdfs:domain service:Service ;
    rdfs:seeAlso xsd:duration , xsd:date, xsd:dateTime ;
    rdfs:isDefinedBy <> .

Applications SHOULD NOT use this property to specify the normal time of service. An example of a service with delay is a concert that starts at an official time (normal time) but there is a delay until band begins to play (delayed time).

4.8 queue

This property can be used to indicate the size of a waiting queue for some Service. Its value MUST be a non-negative integer (0,1,2…).

service:queue a owl:DatatypeProperty ;
    rdfs:label "queue"@en ;
    rdfs:domain service:Service ;
    rdfs:range xsd:nonNegativeInteger ;
    rdfs:isDefinedBy <> .