Introduction
Core Concepts is the ontology for representing concepts such as people, places, events, organisations and themes that make sense across the BBC.
This model enables clients to connect their own domain-specific classes – e.g., athletes or politicians – via the rdfs:subClassOf property.
# Some example triples about Queen Victoria, in Turtle format @prefix core: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/> .
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/things/1efbf3e5-b330-49a1-b531-b507ab027c96#id> a core:Person ; core:preferredLabel "Queen Victoria"@en-gb ; core:disambiguationHint "British Monarch"@en-gb ; core:primaryTopicOf <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria> ; core:sameAs <http://dbpedia.org/resource/Queen_Victoria> , <http://rdf.freebase.com/ns/m.0cw10> , <http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q9439> .Metadata
| Created | 2012-12-01 |
| Last modified | 2025-05-20 |
| Current version | 1.42 |
| Authors | [email protected], [email protected] |
| Licence | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Download | Core Concepts ontology(Turtle format) |
Classes
Animal
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/Animal |
| Description | a subclass of core:Thing to classify animals |
| Superclasses | Thing |
CeremonialCounty
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/CeremonialCounty |
| Description | These are geographic counties, often representing more permanent features of English geography, and to distinguish them from counties of England which have a present-day administrative function. |
| Superclasses | Place, Thing |
CrownDependency
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/CrownDependency |
| Description | Crown dependencies are independently administered jurisdictions which do not form part of either the United Kingdom or the British Overseas Territories. They are self-governing possessions of the Crown (defined uniquely in each jurisdiction). |
| Superclasses | Place, Thing |
EditorialSensitivity
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/EditorialSensitivity |
| Description | An editorial sensitivity for a BBC asset. |
EditorialTone
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/EditorialTone |
| Description | An editorial tone of a BBC asset. |
| Superclasses | Thing |
| Range for | editorialTone |
Event
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/Event |
| Description | The class of events in the BBC. This is a generic class to represent events (music events, historic events, sports events, politics events, etc.). |
| Superclasses | Thing |
| Subclasses | Election, EventSeries |
| Domain for | endDate, eventOrganisation, eventPerson, eventPlace, eventTheme, startDate, subEventOf, superEventOf |
| Range for | subEventOf, superEventOf |
EventSeries
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/EventSeries |
| Description | The class of event series in the BBC, whose events share a unifying characteristic such as regular instances, e.g. Glastonbury or the Olympic Games |
| Superclasses | Event, Thing |
Language
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/Language |
| Description | Human languages supported by the BBC. |
| Domain for | languageCode |
| Range for | language |
Mineral
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/Mineral |
| Description | a subclass of core:Thing to classify minerals |
| Superclasses | Thing |
MusicArtist
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/MusicArtist |
| Description | a subclass of core:Thing to classify music artists |
| Superclasses | Thing |
| Subclasses | MusicGroup, SoloMusicArtist |
MusicGroup
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/MusicGroup |
| Description | a subclass of core:Thing to classify music groups |
| Superclasses | MusicArtist, Thing |
Organisation
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/Organisation |
| Description | The class of organisations in the BBC. e.g., Businesses. |
| Superclasses | Thing |
| Subclasses | Company, CompetitiveSportingOrganisation, Council, GoverningBody, Market, MayoralRegion, NewsService, PoliticalParty, SportEditorialTeam, SportingOrganisation |
| Range for | eventOrganisation |
Person
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/Person |
| Description | The class of people in the BBC. Subclasses of this can be all types of people such as politicians, athletes, historic figures, contributors in programmes, etc. |
| Superclasses | Thing |
| Subclasses | Correspondent, Person, SoloMusicArtist |
| Domain for | dateOfBirth, dateOfDeath, knownFor, occupation, placeOfBirth, placeOfDeath |
| Range for | eventPerson |
Place
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/Place |
| Description | The class of places in the BBC. |
| Superclasses | Thing |
| Subclasses | CeremonialCounty, Constituency, CrownDependency, StatisticalGeography, TraditionalCounty |
| Domain for | servedBy |
| Range for | companyLocation, eventPlace, placeOfBirth, placeOfDeath, serves, workLocation |
SoloMusicArtist
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/SoloMusicArtist |
| Description | a subclass of core:Thing to classify solo music artists |
| Superclasses | MusicArtist, Person, Thing |
Theme
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/Theme |
| Description | This concept is used to represent intangible things or abstract concepts, e.g. financial crisis, midwifery, happiness. |
| Superclasses | Thing |
| Subclasses | Commodity, Currency, NarrativeTheme, Sector |
| Range for | eventTheme, occupation |
Thing
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/Thing |
| Description | The superclass of all things the BBC creates or talks about. |
| Subclasses | Age, Animal, CeremonialCounty, Commodity, Company, CompetitiveSportingOrganisation, Constituency, Correspondent, Council, CrownDependency, Currency, EditorialTone, Election, Event, EventSeries, ExamBoard, ExamSpecification, FieldOfStudy, GoverningBody, Issue, KeyStage, Level, Market, MayoralRegion, Mineral, MusicArtist, MusicGroup, NarrativeTheme, NewsService, Organisation, Person, Person, Phase, Place, PoliticalParty, ProgrammeOfStudy, Sector, SoloMusicArtist, SportEditorialTeam, SportingOrganisation, StatisticalGeography, Theme, TraditionalCounty, Vegetable, Year |
| Domain for | coveredBy |
| Range for | covers, knowsAbout |
TraditionalCounty
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/TraditionalCounty |
| Description | The traditional counties of Northern Ireland were the principal local government divisions of Northern Ireland from its creation in 1921 until 1972, when their governmental features were abolished and replaced with twenty-six unitary authorities |
| Superclasses | Place, Thing |
Vegetable
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/Vegetable |
| Description | a subclass of core:Thing to classify vegetables |
| Superclasses | Thing |
Properties
dateOfBirth
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/dateOfBirth |
| Description | A person's date of birth. |
| Domain | Person |
| Range | w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime |
dateOfDeath
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/dateOfDeath |
| Description | A person's date of death. |
| Domain | Person |
| Range | w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime |
disambiguationHint
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/disambiguationHint |
| Description | One or two words to distinguish between entities that have similar labels - often displayed to both internal and external audiences. |
| Range | w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string |
editorialTone
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/editorialTone |
| Description | This property associates a Thing with an editorial tone. |
| Range | EditorialTone |
endDate
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/endDate |
| Description | End Date of an Event |
| Domain | Event |
| Range | w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#date |
eventOrganisation
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/eventOrganisation |
| Description | organisation as agent in an event |
| Superproperties | notablyAssociatedWith |
| Domain | Event |
| Range | Organisation |
eventPerson
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/eventPerson |
| Description | person as agent in an event |
| Superproperties | notablyAssociatedWith |
| Domain | Event |
| Range | Person |
eventPlace
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/eventPlace |
| Description | place as location of an event |
| Superproperties | notablyAssociatedWith |
| Domain | Event |
| Range | Place |
eventTheme
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/eventTheme |
| Description | theme as factor in an event |
| Superproperties | notablyAssociatedWith |
| Domain | Event |
| Range | Theme |
hasPart
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/hasPart |
| Description | Associates one owl:Thing with another owl:Thing below it in a hierarchy |
| Domain | w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing |
| Range | w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing |
isPartOf
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/isPartOf |
| Description | Associates one owl:Thing with another owl:Thing above it in a hierarchy |
| Subproperties | subOrganisationalUnitOf |
| Domain | w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing |
| Range | w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing |
knownFor
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/knownFor |
| Description | A short summary of what a person is notably known for |
| Domain | Person |
| Range | w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string |
knowsAbout
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/knowsAbout |
| Description | Connects an agent to a subject about which they have knowledge, suggesting possible expertise. |
| Range | Thing |
label
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/label |
| Description | The a label for a thing. A thing may have one label per language. |
| Subproperties | preferredLabel |
| Range | w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string |
language
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/language |
| Description | A human language. |
| Range | Language |
languageCode
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/languageCode |
| Description | A human language's BCP 47 code, incorporating ISO 639-1 code and optional ISO 3166-2 sub-code. |
| Domain | Language |
| Range | w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string |
notablyAssociatedWith
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/notablyAssociatedWith |
| Description | This is a high level property aiming to describe a real-world association between a tag concept and any other tag concept. For example that Tom Daley is notablyAssociatedWith diving, or Glastonbury is notablyAssociatedWith music, or the editorial tone of 'relaxed' is notablyAssociatedWith the audience motivation of 'Help me unwind'. |
| Subproperties | discipline, eventOrganisation, eventPerson, eventPlace, eventTheme, occupation, placeOfBirth, placeOfDeath, subEventOf |
| Domain | w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing |
| Range | w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing |
occupation
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/occupation |
| Description | This property associates a person with a thematic area he or she worked in, for example Annie Lennox with Music. |
| Superproperties | notablyAssociatedWith |
| Domain | Person |
| Range | Theme |
placeOfBirth
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/placeOfBirth |
| Description | A person's place of birth. |
| Superproperties | notablyAssociatedWith |
| Domain | Person |
| Range | Place |
placeOfDeath
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/placeOfDeath |
| Description | A person's place of death |
| Superproperties | notablyAssociatedWith |
| Domain | Person |
| Range | Place |
preferredLabel
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/preferredLabel |
| Description | The BBC editorially preferred label for a thing. A thing may have one and only one preferredLabel |
| Superproperties | label |
| Range | w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string |
primaryTopic
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/primaryTopic |
| Description | Represents the fact that a thing (usually concept, e.g., Tom Daley) is the primary topic of a web document. |
primaryTopicOf
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/primaryTopicOf |
| Description | Represents the fact that a thing (usually concept, e.g., Tom Daley) is the primary topic of a web document. |
| Range | WebDocument |
sameAs
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/sameAs |
| Description | Indicates that something is the same as something else, but in a way that is slightly weaker than owl:sameAs. It's purpose is to connect separate identities of the same thing, whilst keeping separation between the original statements of each. |
| Range | w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing |
shortLabel
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/shortLabel |
| Description | A short label for a thing usually needed for presentation purposes. |
| Range | w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string |
slug
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/slug |
| Description | Human readable keywords that may be used in a programmatic fashion e.g., manchester-city. |
| Range | w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string |
startDate
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/startDate |
| Description | Start Date of an Event |
| Domain | Event |
| Range | w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#date |
subEventOf
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/subEventOf |
| Description | Connects an event to another (broader) event, commonly a series, e.g. Glastonbury 2024 -> Glastonbury |
| Superproperties | notablyAssociatedWith |
| Domain | Event |
| Range | Event |
superEventOf
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/superEventOf |
| Description | Connects an event to another (narrower) event, e.g. Glastonbury -> Glastonbury 2024 |
| Domain | Event |
| Range | Event |
workLocation
| URI | http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/coreconcepts/workLocation |
| Description | Connects an agent to a place associated with their work. |
| Range | Place |
