ontolog-forum
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [ontolog-forum] [ontology-summit] FW: [ontolog-invitation] Invitatio

To: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: David Eddy <deddy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 18:57:09 -0500
Message-id: <4F08C62A-BAA8-49F4-A701-B13B36213CD1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Chris -

On 2010-12-18, at 6:28 PM, Christopher Menzel wrote:

Well, I was talking to Leo, who's really smart and not prone to confusion. :-)  Granted, I was speaking informally about those objects in a model whose relation extensions contain objects in the domain only, no n-tuples.  That said, I'm not sure it is possible, when discussing any technical subject matter informally, to avoid saying things that might be confusing for people who don't bother to study and learn the subject matter in question.

Leo may be a smart guy... but I'm a reader too & am most decidedly NOT in his class.



Isn't this description one of the primary hidden functional agendas of tilting at this ontology windmill?

For instance... I have no idea what "tuples" (much less "n-tuples") are, nor "classes."   [How many dictionaries do I have to check?... no definition for tuple in OAD/Oxford American Dictionary.  Nothing in WordNet.  I'm rapidly loosing interest.  Definitions for "classes" just leave me more confused.]


So how can ontologies help communicate effectively to folks—like myself—who bring a different vocabulary set/life experience to the table?


I can see crossing this recent Google book word counting project with writing documents... count the fact that "tuples" is a thinly used word and the fact that "classes" has a very specific meaning in a programming vocabulary... then attach the special definitions to those obscure words in that document.  If we can natively write HTML emails, certainly it's feasible to attach an intended meaning to potentially special "professional" words.

I was really wishing for this feature the other day when attempting to wade through an economist's monograph.  VERY heavy going.


Point I'm attempting make... someone else writes THE definitive statement on something.  Then I come along later, not having that level of knowledge & experience.  When I slam into "professional big words" since I'm not likely to be able to precisely decipher the big words, I'm likely to make up my own understanding... which is very likely to be wrong from the original intent.

___________________
David Eddy

781-455-0949


_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/  
Config Subscr: 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 join: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WikiHomePage#nid1J
To Post: mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    (01)

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>