Re: [ontolog-forum] Plural taxonomies?

[Deborah MacPherson <debmacp@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Doug,

 

If multiple ontologies, for both types and individuals, are employed to exchange open building information using DAG (directed acyclic graphs) of subtypes...

 

and facts in general, such as concrete strength or deflection limits, are structured using complex business rules...

 

would you say this is an appropriate definition to accomodate building information models, geographic information systems, and large open exchange models:

 

Conceptual models to represent facts, relationships, and rules among exchange entities

Thanks,

 

Deborah

 

 

On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 12:33 AM, doug foxvog <doug@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

There seems to be two definitions of a taxonomy used in this list.
1. A tree structure of subtypes
2. A DAG (directed acyclic graph) of subtypes.

I'm more comfortable with using the term "taxonomy" to refer to #1 and
"hierarchy" to refer to #2.

On Mon, May 31, 2010 13:30, Mike Bennett said:
> We don't rely on words for meanings, and I see no reason why anyone
> would. Terms are either Things or Facts, and each of these has a label
> which happens to be whichever word business domain experts are most
> comfortable with, and any number of synonyms which are other words with
> the same meaning.
>
> The meaning of an individual kind of Thing is pinned down in two ways
> (and independently by its agreed written definition):
>
> 1. What kind of thing is it (taxonomy)

In general, this would be a hierarchy (Def. #2)

> 2. What facts about this thing distinguish it from another thing
> (ontology - adding facts about things in the taxonomy).
>
> Question (1) uses the "Is A" relationship and therefore, de facto,
> defines a taxonomy.

Again, "a hierarchy".

> Question (2) looks at the properties of the thing
> (what we call, in English, Simple Facts and Relationship Facts; in OWL
> these are Datatype Properties and Object Properties).

Facts in general could include more complex structures such as rules.

> Uniqueness would be an issue if we also imposed a global uniqueness

One would not want uniqueness of name when allowing the use of multiple
ontologies -- either for types or for individuals.

-- doug foxvog

> requirement on the overall model, but this would not be realistic if one
> is to also use terms that business subject matter experts are familiar
> with. The alternative would be an ISO 11179 naming rules convention,
> which would be clumsy but could be used to provide a separate, unique
> name which is not displayed. True uniqueness belongs in the URI for each
> term. Since our model is created and edited in UML, the intention is
> that once this is transformed to OWL the UML package structure would be
> used to generate the URIs. Then we simply implement naming uniqueness at
> the package level.
>
> I hope that makes you less nervous. Funds was one of the most difficult
> areas to model and still requires work (we intend to realign it with the
> most recent version of the EFAMA Data Dictionary, which was available
> only in an early draft when we did that part of the model).
>
> Mike
>
> David Eddy wrote:
>> Mike -
>>
>> On May 31, 2010, at 10:23 AM, Mike Bennett wrote:
>>
>>
>>> In the EDM Council
>>> semantics repository ontology, we have built the model around a
>>> polyhierarchical taxonomy, in order to formally model each of the
>>> terms
>>> that is considered meaningful in the industry.
>>>
>>
>> I am by NO means a professional taxonomist.  I watch them.  I get
>> VERY nervous when I see "hierarchy" used in the context of the
>> concepts & terminology in & around software information systems.
>>
>>
>> How does the taxonomy/classification process handle the situation (I
>> assume the reality) of terms having multiple meanings?
>>
>> I am thinking in the context of having worked on "a" mutual fund
>> system that was a continually growing combination of a core package
>> which had been extensively modified, extended & customized plus the
>> addition of at least 7 additional "systems" (both packages & custom
>> written) grafted onto/into the original package.
>>
>> Obviously the chance of the same term meaning the same thing across
>> such an expanse was very close to zero.  And this was looooooong
>> before the concept of taxonomies being useful in information systems
>> came into the popular vernacular (as distinct from USE).
>>
>> ___________________
>> David Eddy
>> deddy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>
>> 781-455-0949

begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              781-455-0949      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

>>
>>
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>
>
> --
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=============================================================
doug foxvog    doug@xxxxxxxxxx   http://ProgressiveAustin.org

"I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great
initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours."
   - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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-- 
********************************************************

Deborah L. MacPherson CSI CCS, AIA
Specifications and Research Cannon Design
Projects Director, Accuracy&Aesthetics

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