On May 9, 2011, at 4:24 AM, Mikel Egaña Aranguren wrote:

Just to add to the discussion, puning can be used to model clases as instances. In fact, a common pattern I'm seing and I'm using is to use puning and have a class hierarchy, each class having an instance with the same URI, so one can refer to each class as a class or as an instance, depending on the context.

The punning feature in OWL2 is very nice indeed. But one should not forget that depending on the use the subject (or object) is either the class *or* the instance. I.e., there is a "class view" of the resource identified by the URI, and an instance view. This is different from referring to a class as an instance. So things you say about the URI using object properties you say about the instance identified by that URI, just as you would if you used a generated instance URI, and the rules that apply to that are no different from the rules that apply if you said those things about an instance with a randomly generated URI. For example, if you say conflicting things about it, you still say these about one and the same instance, not "some", possibly different, instances.

-hilmar

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: Hilmar Lapp -:- Durham, NC -:- informatics.nescent.org :

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