Hi,
The spring is coming, the crocuses are in bloom, it's time to come up with a formal model.
Some questions:
1. Firstly is it possible to express items like
"Feature often present by mis-identification" (I came across this somewhere, but can't recall the posting/webpage)
I note you've already highlighted seasonal variations as a problem. To that I'd add geographical, and developmental (i.e. age of item).
2. It seems to presuppose a Linnean viewpoint i.e. Kingdom, Phylum, etc. Gregor has previously pointed out that the reality is much more complex. Multiple hierarchies can be produced. For example, how would the model be used to express DNA/Protein data? Physiological versus Molecular hierarchies?
[See (RQT) Character and item hierarchy from Gregor posted on 1/12/99 - I'd include a URL, but the ListServ archive seems to require a username/password]
3. I assume that the list of Feature/Properties will not be fixed, but can be extended at will?
Apologies if this seems overly critical, I'm just trying to get my head around things.
Fundamentally I think that an RDF (or even Groves) model of the data will be extremely useful. However I'm concerned that the presence of items like 'TaxonomicClass' in the model doesn't capture the range of flexibility that Kevin, Gregor and the others have stated as a requirement.
I'd welcome some further discussion/information of your model.
Cheers,
L.