>In a recent discussion on spatio-temporal
>representations of 'apparently' straightforward
>realworld concepts such as the difference
>between a river and a lake in GIS, (01)
Was that discussion recorded, and is any trace of
it public? I'd very much like to be more aware of
it. The fact that different cultures will give
different definitions of such concepts has been
known for decades, of course. Almopst no
real-world concepts are straightforward when one
tries to pin them down with any degree of
precision. (02)
> the environmentalists, the geographers, the
>fishermen, the freshwater biologists used very
>different criteria reflecting fact that the
>'proper object' they sought to achieve were not
>the same. (03)
Quite. They are all using the same words to refer
to different entities. Surely then a good
ontology should focus on the those entities
rather than the words (which we know to be
ambiguous). (04)
>HoweverŠthe Ordnance Survey team will make a choice (05)
Why do you need to make a choice? Is it to keep
the maps simple? Fair enough, if so: but I would
strongly recommend that you do not make the
choice in your ontologies, but instead try to
keep the various distinct concepts all alive and
distinctly represented, so that part of the
business of the ontology is to record the
relations between them. Although this is more
work in the short term, it will likely have
valuable long-term payoff. (06)
Pat Hayes (07)
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
IHMC (850)434 8903 or (650)494 3973 home
40 South Alcaniz St. (850)202 4416 office
Pensacola (850)202 4440 fax
FL 32502 (850)291 0667 cell
phayesAT-SIGNihmc.us http://www.ihmc.us/users/phayes (08)
_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/
Subscribe/Config: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/
To Post: mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (09)
|