Bruce,

The naming preferences and use cases of different authority agencies
need to be accounted for. Take VIAF for example. That's one example of
how the indirection of mads:MADSAuthority + mads:AuthorityScheme or
skos:Concept + skos:ConceptScheme come in handy. 

I think the MADS focus on classifying names rather than things is
upside-down, but that's how many people think about authorities. I would
suggest that the skos:Concept abstraction (via foaf:focus) is the best
way for us to flip them right-side up. ;-)

Jeff

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Metadata Object Description Schema List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bruce D'Arcus
> Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 12:57 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [MODS] Mark Twain Rides Again (was Re: [MODS] MADS/RDF
for
> review)
> 
> In plain English, isn't Mark Twain simply a pen-name, denoting an
> alternate persona, for the person Samuel Clemens? Shouldn't the
> modeling reflect that basic, fairly simple, logic?
> 
> E.g. the most simple modeling:
> 
> <http:whatever.org/1> a foaf:Person ;
>     foaf:name "Samuel Clemens" ;
>     mads:penName "Mark Twain" .
> 
> ... or a little more complex, treat the two as discrete foaf:Person
> subjects:
> 
> <http:whatever.org/1> a foaf:Person ;
>     foaf:name "Samuel Clemens" ;
>     mads:alternatePersona <http:whatever.org/2> .
> 
> <http:whatever.org/2> a foaf:Person ;
>     foaf:name "Mark Twain" ;
>     mads:alternatePersonaOf <http:whatever.org/1> .
> 
> I don't get the value of indirection: of treating authors as concepts.
> 
> Bruce