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Re: [ontolog-forum] Terminology Question concerning WebArchitecture and

To: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "John F. Sowa" <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:51:31 -0400
Message-id: <46A62003.3070603@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Jenny,    (01)

I just want to emphasize that I'm definitely in favor of
having common ontologies when they are useful for their
intended purpose.    (02)

But as your example shows, it is not a good idea to force
commonality where it is inappropriate:    (03)

JU> Colleagues designing software for safety compliance across oil
 > and gas installations found that having one common model actually
 > made sites LESS safe.  Being forced to implement systems that did
 > not reflect the local context meant that in practice it increasingly
 > became the norm to disregard ALL of it.    (04)

Commonality is not an end in itself.  My greatest fear about any
kind of universal ontology is that (a) people will try to force it
on projects where it does more harm than good, and (b) the result
will be that it destroys the credibility of the entire field.    (05)

JU> His approach was to define a common core that reflects fairly
 > invariant features and have a formally documented locally managed
 > version that reflected the needs and affordances of the local domain
 > and the local workforce.    (06)

That is a very reasonable approach.    (07)

John    (08)


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