[Tdwg-tag] Object Model / Ontology Management - how we kick it off.

John R. WIECZOREK tuco at berkeley.edu
Wed Feb 22 17:32:23 CET 2006


I agree with Donald about multiple inheritance, and with you concerning the
simple prescription of anchor points. These in turn can act as a models for
the subgroups to elaborate.

On 2/22/06, Donald Hobern <dhobern at gbif.org> wrote:
>
>  Roger,
>
>
>
> One slight extension/modification I would like to see is that I would
> really like to see the polymorphism more like Java interface implementation
> than Java class extension (i.e. "multiple inheritance" may be a good thing
> if suitably controlled, e.g. by namespaces).  My point here is that I want
> it to be easy for our data providers to make use of all relevant
> polymorphisms (extensions) when serving their data.  Darwin Core is my model
> here.  If we develop a range of extension vocabularies to augment Darwin
> Core in describing a taxon occurrence, providers should be able to serve
> data including any subset of those vocabularies.
>
>
>
> This may be so obvious as not to need saying, but I wanted to be sure it
> was captured.
>
>
>
> By the way, I thoroughly agree with your other points and believe that we
> should focus on the small shared vocabulary you describe.  If we define
> these anchor points, subgroups can address everything that we need to flesh
> out these classes for use in applications (including defining properties
> that relate their objects to objects of other classes).
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Donald
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Donald Hobern (dhobern at gbif.org)
> Programme Officer for Data Access and Database Interoperability
> Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat
> Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
> Tel: +45-35321483   Mobile: +45-28751483   Fax: +45-35321480
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>  ------------------------------
>
> *From:* Tdwg-tag-bounces at lists.tdwg.org [mailto:
> Tdwg-tag-bounces at lists.tdwg.org] *On Behalf Of *Roger Hyam
> *Sent:* 22 February 2006 16:50
> *To:* Tdwg-tag at lists.tdwg.org
> *Subject:* [Tdwg-tag] Object Model / Ontology Management - how we kick it
> off.
>
>
>
> 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).
>
>    1. It should be representation independent (i.e. we should be able
>    to move it between 'languages' UML, OWL, BNF etc).
>    2. It should be dynamic (i.e. capable of evolving through time).
>    3. 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.
>    4. 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.
>    5. 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
>
>
> --
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------
>
>  Roger Hyam
>
>  Technical Architect
>
>  Taxonomic Databases Working Group
>
> -------------------------------------
>
>  http://www.tdwg.org
>
>  roger at tdwg.org
>
>  +44 1578 722782
>
> -------------------------------------
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tdwg-tag mailing list
> Tdwg-tag at lists.tdwg.org
> http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-tag_lists.tdwg.org
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.tdwg.org/pipermail/tdwg-tag/attachments/20060222/a3e8cdb6/attachment.html 


More information about the tdwg-tag mailing list