Glossary · Versions and files

iiRDS InformationObject

Also known as: information object

In iiRDS (intelligent information Request and Delivery Standard), an InformationObject groups information units that contain the same information and differ only in language or revision. Each of these units links to the information object with iirds:is-version-of.

iiRDS term
Ontology
Information architecture

In one sentence

An iiRDS InformationObject groups the language versions and revisions of the same content, so systems know these units say the same thing.

Example

A safety topic exists in English, German and French, each in revision 1 and revision 2. All six topics link to one InformationObject, so a portal can show the latest revision in the reader’s language.

In-depth wiki articleiiRDS InformationObject: one identity for every language and revision

How it applies

Translation management: The information object connects all language versions of a unit. A portal can fall back to another language when a translation is missing, instead of showing nothing.
Regulated documentation: Grouping revisions under one object makes it easy to see which versions belong together — useful when you need to prove which revision of an instruction was delivered with a device.
AI and retrieval: A retrieval system can recognize six units as one piece of information and avoid returning near-identical answers in several languages or outdated revisions.

Rules from the specification

Information objects are optional. If they are used, an information object must have an absolute IRI, and each information unit must be related to exactly one information object via iirds:is-version-of.

InformationObject vs. InformationUnit

An InformationUnit is concrete content in one language and revision; it has renditions and metadata. An InformationObject is not an information unit and has no files — it is the identity that its language versions and revisions share. The link runs from each unit to the object, not the other way round.

In RDF

Shown in Turtle for readability — inside a package, metadata.rdf is written in RDF/XML.

@prefix iirds: <http://iirds.tekom.de/iirds#> .

<https://example.com/iirds/objects/safety-lockout> a iirds:InformationObject .

# English and German version of the same safety topic
<https://example.com/iirds/safety-lockout-en> a iirds:Topic ;
    iirds:is-version-of <https://example.com/iirds/objects/safety-lockout> .
<https://example.com/iirds/safety-lockout-de> a iirds:Topic ;
    iirds:is-version-of <https://example.com/iirds/objects/safety-lockout> .