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Re: [ontolog-forum] The Open Group SOA Ontology

To: sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx, "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: c.harding@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: Ron Wheeler <rwheeler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:56:04 -0400
Message-id: <487DEFE4.4090408@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
John F. Sowa wrote:
> I endorse Azamat's questions:
>
> AA> ... how should one take this basic definition: "a service
>   
>> is a logical representation of a repeatable business activity
>> that has a specified outcome."  Why is its genus "a logical
>> representation"?
>>     
>
> If I need some service, I want somebody or something to do
> something.  I don't want a statement in logic (unless my
> request happened to be for a copy of some formula).
>
> AA> ... Again, why is its differentia chosen as "a repeatable
>   
>> business activity that has a specified outcome".
>>     
>
> Why must a service be repeatable?  Many needs are unique.
>   
I would think that the meaning of repeatable is more along the lines of
"If I order a Bud on Monday I get a Bud, if I go back to the bar on 
Tuesday and order a Coors, I get a Coors."
rather than
"If I order a Bud on Monday I get a Bud, if I go back to the bar on 
Tuesday and order a Coors, I get a Bud."
 The repeatability is that I get what I order, not that I always get the 
same thing or always get what everyone else orders.    (01)


> And why must it be a business activity?
>
>   
I am afraid that business will always get the attention.
However, if someone could model the process by which women chose 
clothing in a store, men would value this much more than most of the 
business models produced.
I am just not sure this is possible. A working model would be worthy of 
a Ph.D. in any number of disciplines and possibly a Nobel prize.    (02)

There are other human/machine and machine/machine interactions that 
would be subject to modeling that would not be generally understood as 
business.
Scientific instrumentation is a more serious non-business application 
that could be described in this way.    (03)

> What does it mean for the outcome to be "specified"?
> Does that mean "specified in advance"?  But what about
> emergency services that respond to unpredictable events?
>
>   
They still should have a behaviour that is specified in advance. 
Specifying something in advance does not mean that all inputs are ignored.
You still have to train firemen even though you are not sure if they 
will arrive at a drowning or an electrocution or a fire.
Their services are describable in advance even if you do not know what 
is on fire.
The inputs will be used to guide the process and it may take a very 
large specification in this case - most of which is not written.
Their training and experience builds a model in their minds that they 
draw on.
It could be documented with all of the possible input values identified 
and it could then be used to train new firemen.    (04)

It would never be completely finished since new input values would 
always appear and have to be evaluated.
If perfect understanding of all possible future inputs was a requirement 
for models, then we would never model anything of reasonable complexity.    (05)

> John Sowa
>  
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>       (06)



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