Dear Pat, (01)
At some levels I think you are barking up the wrong tree, and on the other
that you are too pessimistic. (02)
> Do we need a "mandated" upper ontology for interoperability?
> John Sowa said;
> >
> > I have no quarrel with an agreement to mandate specific
> > ontologies for specific purposes. That is the whole point of the
> > microtheory organization of Cyc.
> >
> If the "purpose" is interoperability, then it does indeed make sense
to
> have a single common foundation ontology. But the term "mandated" is too
> argumentative. A common foundation ontology for interoperability is a
tool
> available for those who need to interoperate; it serves as a common
language
> to enable communication among the systems that use it. (03)
MW: For interoperability it is not another foundation ontology that is
needed, but a mapping between the different foundations that are already
found. These in turn can be traced back to the ontological commitments made
in those foundation ontologies, and how those ontological commitments
translate in practical terms. (04)
MW: The good news is that there are relatively few ontological commitments
to choose from, and many combinations are unlikely because they are
incoherent. So I suspect that what is needed is how to translate between,
based on the differences in ontological commitment, rather than another (or
one of the existing) foundation ontologies. (05)
MW: You need perhaps a hundred or so concepts, so rather less than the
10,000 you mention. (06)
MW: The other good thing is that there is nothing to mandate. The mappings
deal with how different situations are dealt with under the different
ontological commitments, and they can be developed from use cases that cover
the usual difficulties. There are probably about 10-20 of those. (07)
Regards (08)
Matthew West
Information Junction
Tel: +44 1489 880185
Mobile: +44 750 3385279
Skype: dr.matthew.west
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http://www.informationjunction.co.uk/
http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/ (09)
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