John F. Sowa wrote:
> Ed,
>
> I completely agree with everything you said about terminology. I
> realize the value of good terminologies, and I wasn't criticizing
> any of that work.
>
> EB
>
>> Remember first that the audience for that work is people who write
>> domain vocabularies, standards of practice and other semi-formal
>> publications. The objective is to explain to such persons how to select
>> terms, and conceive and write definitions that will be clear and
>> understandable to other people who have some training in the subject domain.
>>
>
> The point I wanted to make is that the overwhelming majority of
> the so-called OWL ontologies on the web are *terminologies*.
> Their definitions are stated as OWL comments, and they don't
> use any of the reasoning methods designed for OWL.
> (01)
And my point is that these OWL ontologies are created by people who are
just learning to formalize concepts. This is Mozart Symphony #1 at an
age between 20 and 40. Yes, they are little more than terminologies.
Be thankful that these folk are using OWL, instead of XML Schema or UML
or ISO 11179 or SBVR. At least with OWL the models have well-defined
formal semantics, wherein, for example, A subsumes B doesn't mean Bs can
be thought of as As, or Bs are analogous to As, or most Bs are As, or Bs
are As except that xxx. And with OWL, these models have the possibility
of extended axiomatization, as these people, or their peers and
successors, get further up the learning curve. An OWL terminology glass
is half full. (02)
-Ed (03)
> John
>
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> (04)
--
Edward J. Barkmeyer Email: edbark@xxxxxxxx
National Institute of Standards & Technology
Manufacturing Systems Integration Division
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8263 Tel: +1 301-975-3528
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8263 Cel: +1 240-672-5800 (05)
"The opinions expressed above do not reflect consensus of NIST,
and have not been reviewed by any Government authority." (06)
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