GeoNames Ontology 2.2

Version 2.2.1 of the GeoNames Ontology has been released. Navigation within the administrative hierarchy has been made easier with the addition of the GeoNames URIs for the parentCountry and the parentADM(1-4) divisions. The proprietary names are now subproperties of the standard rdfs:label and skos:altLabel.

The properties ‘nearby’ and ‘neighbour’ have been implemented inline within the feature document for the Premium Data Subscription.

Changes:

  • add and use ‘gn’ namespace gn=”http://www.geonames.org/ontology#” for GeoNames Ontology properties
  • add namespace rdfs=”http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#”
  • add new property rdfs:isDefinedBy
  • change proprietary property gn:name to be subproperty of rdfs:label
  • change proprietary property gn:alternateName to be subproperty of skos:altLabel
  • new gn:officialName for alternate names with ‘isPreferred’ flag
  • new gn:shortName for alternate names with ‘isShort’ flag
  • new parentCountry
  • new parentADM(1-4)
  • implemented ‘nearby’ (within the document, only available with the Premium Data Subscription)
  • implemented ‘neighbour’ (within the document, only available with the Premium Data Subscription)

7. Oct Update: The current version is 2.2.1 and fixes some issues with name properties in v2.2. Version 2.2 is deprecated.

Advertisement

Premium Data Subscription

GeoNames is launching a Premium Data Subscription as a quality offering for professional users. The Premium Data is released monthly on an annual subscription basis. The first release ‘September 2010’ is now available.

Two approaches are used to find and eliminate errors and inconsistencies. On the one hand all modifications are monitored and sorted by relevance. All relevant modifications are verified and confirmed by a member of the GeoNames team, on the other hand over a hundred consistency checks have been implemented to spot quality problems.
The Premium Data also includes release notes, documentation and additional data files. It is available in csv and rdf format.