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Re: [ontolog-forum] Solving the information federation problem

To: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "edbark@xxxxxxxx" <edbark@xxxxxxxx>, Paul Brown <pbrown@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "simf-rfp@xxxxxxx" <simf-rfp@xxxxxxx>, "jamsden@xxxxxxxxxx" <jamsden@xxxxxxxxxx>
From: Cory Casanave <cory-c@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2011 17:33:39 -0400
Message-id: <B958E6B1BCD5114789747469E80A8762A93DEFBB74@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Duane,
I'm not sure I get your point.  Assuming that the semantics of  
@FirstNameOfContact is well defined and consistent (which I think is your 
assumption - a big assumption), I don't see how the data contained in 
@FirstNameOfContact in these 2 context have different semantics.  In fact the 
SAME party with the SAME @FirstNameOfContact may play the role of BuyerParty in 
one XML document fragment and SellingParty in another.  Clearly the same 
parties semantics are consistent with its self.    (01)

I think the point being made was that analysis of different-but-assumed-similar 
tag names in various schema alone, without any abstraction, has less value than 
understanding common abstractions with semantic mappings.      (02)

I feel like we must be talking past each other somehow??    (03)

-Cory    (04)

-----Original Message-----
From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Duane Nickull
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2011 4:23 PM
To: edbark@xxxxxxxx; [ontolog-forum]; Paul Brown
Cc: simf-rfp@xxxxxxx; jamsden@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Solving the information federation problem    (05)

I couldn't agree more with this:    (06)

>>Yet there is much implied in the data structures that they exchange as 
>>there is in the data structures that are used within each party's IT 
>>systems. I see some benefit in analyzing these data structures and 
>>extracting the ontological fragments they represent. There will be 
>>many holes, particularly in relationships between concepts, but it's a 
>>useful starting point. I see even greater advantage if we can then 
>>define ontological relationships and from them generate mappi
>ngs between data structures, particularly between the publicly 
>exchanged data structures and each party's equivalent internal representations.
>There's real commercial benefit here.    (07)

One issue that has perplexed a few beginners is the structure affecting 
semantics.  Presuming we could all agree on the meaning of a data element that 
is used for the "First name of a company contact", it would appear on the 
surface that we have solved a problem.  EDIFACT and OAGIS both took
this approach and it has many benefits.   The issue comes when the data
transferred is structured differently.  In Xpath terms, the data contained 
within the hierarchy:    (08)

//PurchaseOrder/BuyerParty/@FirstNameOfContact    (09)

Is semantically different from    (010)

//PurchaseOrder/SellingParty/@FirstNameOfContact    (011)

The mapping between a hierarchy and a structured text file like EDI is 
difficult to document when you want to preserve the more subtle nuances of 
pragmatics.      (012)

Duane    (013)


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