There is an OMG Metamodel for ontology description. At least one implementation of it <br><a href="http://www.eclipse.org/m2m/atl/usecases/ODMImplementation/">http://www.eclipse.org/m2m/atl/usecases/ODMImplementation/</a><br>
claims to support designing OWL ontologies with UML,<br><br>I think it was Markus who pointed me at a commercial product that has OWL<-->UML<-->XML Schema or something like that. I think I was underwhelmed by it at Bratislava when I last tried it, but maybe it is better now.<br>
<br><br>
One gotcha about OWL as normative that always worries me is that a lot non-specialist folks thing RDF means RDF/XML. That wouldn't stop me from using it though. After all, it's a golden road(*) to machine reasoning.... :-)<br>
<br>Bob<br><br>(*)Not to be confused with a yellow-brick road.<br><br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 9:38 AM, Roger Hyam <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rogerhyam@mac.com">rogerhyam@mac.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Hi Markus,<br>
<br>
My plan is to produce an abstract model (a text description of the<br>
classes and properties) and a series of example concrete models. One<br>
would be the OWL ontology (perhaps this would be normative not sure<br>
yet) another would be a CSV file format and a third would be a simple<br>
(one namespace) XML file format. I will define mappings between all<br>
these (possibly XSLT to get from XML to CSV and OWL).<br>
<br>
I also plan to do a mapping from the IPT checklist format to one or<br>
all of these things.<br>
<br>
It would be good to write a couple of tools to do some auto conversion.<br>
<br>
If I cut out all the rubbish and only include what is actually used we<br>
are only talking two classes and < thirty properties so I should be<br>
able beat the thing into submission quiet quickly.<br>
<br>
All the best,<br>
<br>
Roger<br>
<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
On 24 Apr 2009, at 12:07, Markus Döring (GBIF) wrote:<br>
<br>
> Roger,<br>
> if you are working on that already, what do you think are the chances<br>
> to have a one to one mapping from the taxonomic dwc terms to the names<br>
> & taxon classes in the ontology?<br>
><br>
> We are using the dwc terms not only for occurrence records, but are<br>
> already encoding pure taxonomic or nomenclatural checklists with<br>
> simple dwc terms. Within ECAT and also the Global Names Index /<br>
> Architecture we have started sharing such checklists encoded as text<br>
> files which are far easier to handle than TCS-RDF, especially when<br>
> dealing with hundreds of thousands of names. The expressiveness is of<br>
> course limited, but it allows us to easily share all of the basic<br>
> taxonomic/nomenclatural information such as synonyms, basionyms,<br>
> taxonomic hierarchies, taxon concept reference, original publication,<br>
> nomenclatural code, nomenclatural & taxonomic status, rank, atomised<br>
> name parts and the classic higher dwc ranks for each name. I would be<br>
> super glad to see a convergence with the ontology here.<br>
><br>
> Markus<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> On Apr 24, 2009, at 11:54, Roger Hyam wrote:<br>
><br>
>> Hi Peter,<br>
>><br>
>> The TaxonOccurrence standard is not actually a standard. It is part<br>
>> of<br>
>> the vocabulary that was put together two years ago and maps well to<br>
>> DwC.<br>
>><br>
>> Meanwhile, as Markus points out, DwC has gone its own way.<br>
>><br>
>> The whole TDWG ontology needs some clarification and sorting out and<br>
>> as Bob points out this is now done on a voluntary basis.<br>
>><br>
>> I am working on the TaxonName and TaxonConcept vocabularies because I<br>
>> need to use them. I hope I will provide what Markus requests (good<br>
>> return type definitions for GUIDs) but I will only do it for taxon<br>
>> names and concepts because that is all I am working on. I hope to<br>
>> take<br>
>> this to a stage where it is solid, documented and standardizable.<br>
>><br>
>> This will entail doing some stuff on the way the TDWG ontology/<br>
>> vocabulary is presented but really it is not my department to do that<br>
>> alone.<br>
>><br>
>> This is very important for TDWG (as Markus points out).<br>
>><br>
>> What really needs to happen is for people who need things to happen<br>
>> in<br>
>> the ontology to role up their sleeves and make them happen.<br>
>><br>
>> For occurrence stuff I recommend you join forces with John Wieczorek.<br>
>><br>
>> All the best,<br>
>><br>
>> Roger<br>
>><br>
>><br>
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<br>
</div></div>-------------------------------------------------------------<br>
Roger Hyam<br>
Roger@BiodiversityCollectionsIndex.org<br>
<a href="http://www.BiodiversityCollectionsIndex.org" target="_blank">http://www.BiodiversityCollectionsIndex.org</a><br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Robert A. Morris<br>Professor of Computer Science<br>UMASS-Boston<br><a href="mailto:ram@cs.umb.edu">ram@cs.umb.edu</a><br><a href="http://bdei.cs.umb.edu/">http://bdei.cs.umb.edu/</a><br>
<a href="http://www.cs.umb.edu/~ram">http://www.cs.umb.edu/~ram</a><br><a href="http://www.cs.umb.edu/~ram/calendar.html">http://www.cs.umb.edu/~ram/calendar.html</a><br>phone (+1)617 287 6466<br>