To accurately model the information we have on topics we need a large number of specialised properties. We don't always have detailed information however so we also need more general properties for those cases.
This means that queries are more difficult as you are having to guess which property was used in each case.
If we had a 'subproperty' mechanism then we could define the specialist properties as subproperties of the general property and search accross all of them at the same time.
Example A.
Property P21-Sex.
This is used for all of the following properties:
- biological sex
- Sex chromosomes
- secondary sexual characteristics
- Sex hormones
- Gender
- gender identity
- gender expression
At present these are modeled using 'instance of' as a qualifier but it would be better to follow W3C recommendations and make each of these a subproperty so we can use the various tools that have been developed to manipulate W3C compliant ontologies.
Example B.
P793 Significant event is a property specifically created so imitation subproperties can be easily created using qualifiers and a search on P793 can find all of these easily. Real subproperties would be W3C compliant.
Example C.
Property P31-'Instance of' is very widely used but there are cases where wikidata has chosen to create other properties which are similar but whose use is limited to various specific cases.
and others. A subproperty mechanism would mean that users who are not familiar with all these specialist properties could still search on P31 and find all these topics.
Version: unspecified
Severity: enhancement