At 9:58 PM +0200 4/21/08, Wacek Kusnierczyk wrote:
>Pat Hayes wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> But I dont understand why
>>>
>>> . I don't think it makes sense to refer to an ontology as being
>>> open (or not).
>>>
>>>
>>> why not?
>>
>> Well, what would it mean to say that a Word document was 'open'? An
>> ontology is a (document consisting of) a collection of formal
>> sentences. You can read the document: how much more 'open' can it get?
>
>so why does it make sense to refer to a piece of code as being open (or
>not)? well, what would it mean to say that a piece of code was 'open'? (01)
That you can read it, exactly. In contrast to
most bought software, where what you get is not
the code in readable form, but a compiled
executable, which you can run but NOT read. (02)
>a piece of code is a (document consisting of) a collection of statements
>in a programming language. you can read/parse/compile/execute the
>document: how much more 'open' can it get? if you *can* read it, it
>can't pobably get more open (unless 'open' implies some sort of licence
>for modification, redistribution, etc., so that beng able to read a
>document would not be all one could do with open documents). but what
>if you can't? you know it is there, you know people use it, but you
>can't read it, unless you pay, or unless you're appropriately employed. (03)
And then its not open source. Its the source that
is open, not the code. But this distinction
doesnt apply to ontologies since (AFAIK) they
don't get compiled to executables. (04)
Pat (05)
>
>i don't think it makes sense to deny that an ontology could be
>meaningfully called 'open' (or not).
>
>vQ
>
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