[tdwg-content] DwC for the semantic web

[Mark Wilden]

2011/4/28 Steve Baskauf <steve.baskauf at vanderbilt.edu>:

> As a point of
> clarification, the class dsw:IndividualOrganism as we have defined it in DSW
> does not specify that an instance of the class must actually be an
> individual organism [...] At
> one point we considered using the name TaxonomicallyHomogeneousEntity, but
> that seemed unwieldy.

If that's what it is, then that's what it should be called, in my
opinion. To have the term InvidualOrganism not actually mean
"individual organism" is asking for trouble. Call it what it is, then
try to think of a better term. But don't use the wrong term just
because it's less unwieldy.

That's how I name things, as a programmer (not an ontology-creator).
In general, if I find that a thing is hard to name, then I don't
really understand what it represents. Some concepts are simply
unwieldy, though, but the name should still be accurate.

My two cents - no doubt worth less. :)

///ark
Web Applications Developer
Center for Applied Biodiversity Informatics
California Academy of Sciences