Roger,
I think I agree with most of your points (also from previous
messages).
Concerning the representation independent object model, I would
suggest the same approach taken by CIDOC CRM:
http://cidoc.ics.forth.gr/docs/cidoc_crm_version_4.2.pdf
It's not easy to find such clear and well documented modelling work.
Although at a first glance it could fall into the "ontology-at-the-
level-of-laws-of-physics" category, I won't make that judgment
because CIDOC's scope is definitely broader than ours.
Anyway, what I'm suggesting is to use the same approach and the same
kind of documentation. Using and extending CIDOC is a completely
different thing - probably interesting (I think), but something that
could even be evaluated and addressed at another stage.
Regards,
--
Renato
On 22 Feb 2006 at 15:50, Roger Hyam wrote:
Hi All,
It is generally agreed that we need an representation independent
object model or ontology of some kind. I would like to put together a
list of the things that need to be agreed or investigated in order to
do this.
Firstly the things I believe we can all agree on (stop me if I am
wrong).
* It should be representation independent (i.e. we should be able to
move it between 'languages' UML, OWL, BNF etc).
* It should be dynamic (i.e. capable of evolving through time).
* It should be polymorphic. This is a result of it being dynamic. There
will, at a minimum, be multiple version of any one part of the model
when new version are introduced.
* It should NOT attempt to be omniscient i.e. it will not cover
everything in our domain, only the parts that need to be
communicated.
* It will be managed in a distributed fashion. Different teams will
take responsibility for different parts of it.
My first Question is:
Does the centralization of the ontology need to go beyond a small
shared vocabulary of terms or base classes?
I envisage this ontology containing things like Collection, Specimen,
TaxonConcept, TaxonName but not defining the detailed structure of
these objects. It would contain a maximum of a few 10's of objects
and properties. TDWG subgroups would be responsible for building
ontologies that extend these base objects but that generally didn't
refer to each other - only to the core. If this is true then I think
the definition of the top level object falls within the remit of the
TAG ( in consultation with others).
If this is not a valid way forward what are the alternatives?
Are their questions we should ask before this one?
Once again I'd be grateful for your thoughts.
Roger
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