Dataset Glossary

These are general terms related to the dataset concept.

Attribute: An attribute is a characteristic or property of an item, sometimes used in a descriptive sense. In intensional logic, all attributes or characteristics of similarly classifiable items define the membership in that set.

Class: A set of similar members with similar properties and attributes; a class is a collection of sets (or sometimes other mathematical objects) which can be unambiguously defined by a property that all its members share.

Data Space: A data space may be personal, collective or topical, and is a virtual "container" for related information irrespective of storage location, schema or structure.

Dataset: An aggregation of similar kinds of things or items, mostly comprised of instance records.

Entity: An individual object or member of a class; when affixed with a proper name or label is also known as a named entity (thus, named entities are a subset of all entities).

Key-Value Pair: Also known as a name–value pair or attribute–value pair, a key-value pair is a fundamental, open-ended data representation. All or part of the data model may be expressed as a collection of tuples <attribute name, value> where each element is a key-value pair. The key is the defined attribute and the value may be a reference to another object or a literal string or value. In RDF triple terms, the subject is implied in a key-value pair by nature of the instance record at hand.

Instance: An individual member of a class, also used synonomously with entity.

Linkage: A specification that relates an object or attribute name to its full URI (as required in the RDF language).

Mapping: A considered correlation of objects in two different sources to one another, with the relation between the objects defined via a specific property. Linkage is a subset of possible mappings.

Metadata: As used herein, this is "data about data", or the means by which data objects or aggregations can be described. Contrasted to an attribute, which is an individual characteristic intrinsic to a data object or instance, metadata is a description about that data, such as how or when created or by whom.

Property: Used synonomously herein with attribute; property is the official term used in the RDF.

Resource Description Framework, or RDF: RDF is a family of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) specifications that are designed as data model. It is used as a general method for conceptual description or modeling of information that is implemented in Web resources, using a variety of syntax formats.

Triple: A basic statement in the RDF language, which is comprised of a subject - property - object construct, with the subject and property (and object optionally) referenced by URLsMore here.