Steve Ray wrote:
> Matthew,
> I completely agree with you, and would be interested to hear from
> this group what they believe are authoritative URIs for common data types
> such as:
>
> Float (or Real)
> Integer
> Boolean
> String
> (01)
I have never met a datatype term that the information technology
community couldn't argue about indefinitely. (02)
The problem is: Who is the registration authority for things like
this? And who is willing to concede that authority? The W3C attitude
is that these have been defined in XML Schema part 2: Datatypes. The
JCP attitude is that, for matters related to Java, the Java standards
are the authority for such datatypes. Fortunately, tthe JCP lot were
able to convince W3C to use their types in XML Schema, but then, so were
the SQL folk, and most modelers prefer xsd:integer to xsd:long as the
name for Integer. And the ISO 11179 "metadata registry" folk think the
registered names are ISO URIs for 'technical elements' of ISO 11404.
What we have is multiple communities who claim the authority, based on
having published standards for certain implementation communities. (03)
So it seems to me that we will get multiple URIs for these datatype
concepts, each of which has a definition in a standard written by
whichever community owns that URI. And some poor souls will have to
determine whether the extensions of the defined concepts are really the
same, or were intended to be, or not. And then they will have to get
everyone to agree that their repository of equivalences or subtypes or
whatever is authoritative. In short, nomenclature standards really
don't work over large communities until the supporting technology stops
changing. And if we have to agree on both a term and its definition, it
will be even harder. (04)
In a similar way, Matthew is certainly right about Ferraris, but who is
the internationally accepted authority for motor vehicle terminology?
ODETTE? Is it a "hood" or a "bonnet" or some other bizarre term no one
actually uses? Does everyone agree on the meaning of "power train"? (05)
> And then, thoughts on the same for measured quantities such as:
>
> AbsoluteDateTime
> Duration
> (I'll stop here for now)
> (06)
Yeah. You don't want to put the objective any further than Arhhem. But
you are already a bridge too far. (07)
The unarguable authority for what Steve calls 'duration' is BIPM,
reference source for all the basic measurement concepts. Their
publications, e.g., the International System of (measurement) Units
(SI), refer to that kind of quantity as 'time'. The generally agreed
upon authority for date and time expressions is ISO 8601, but I don't
think it uses the term "Absolute Date Time" at all. Unlike
computational datatypes, which change with technology, however, these
latter concepts have established international authorities. (08)
There is still the issue of whether everyone agrees on the nomenclature
for those concepts, as Steve's choice of terms indicates. This is not
really a problem in RDF. The term is not 'time' or 'duration', it is
"http://www.bipm.org/publications/SI#time";, or something very similar.
The problem arises from humans trying to interpret only the last 4
characters of that URI, without visiting the site and examining the
definition. As in most such things, we have met the enemy and they is us. (09)
-Ed (010)
--
Edward J. Barkmeyer Email: edbark@xxxxxxxx
Systems Integration Division
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8263 Tel: +1 301-975-3528
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8263 Cel: +1 240-672-5800 (011)
"The opinions expressed above do not reflect consensus of NIST,
and have not been reviewed by any Government authority." (012)
> - Steve
>
>
>
> Steven R. Ray, Ph.D.
> Distinguished Research Fellow
> Carnegie Mellon University
> NASA Research Park
> Building 23 (MS 23-11)
> P.O. Box 1
> Moffett Field, CA 94305-0001
> Email: steve.ray@xxxxxxxxxx
> Phone: (650) 587-3780
> Cell: (202) 316-6481
> Skype: steverayconsulting
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Matthew West
> Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2012 12:37 AM
> To: doug@xxxxxxxxxx; '[ontolog-forum] '
> Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] URIs [was: Truth]
>
> Dear Doug,
>
> I think this is an important point.
>
> DF> The more that people reuse existing URIs instead of inventing their
> DF> own,
> the
>
>> more utility the massive tuple stores can provide.
>>
>
> MW: One of the things I try to promote is the idea of an authoritative
> source, so not only are there relatively few URIs for the same thing, but
> there is a natural preference for which one to use. So to cross threads, if
> we are looking for what URI to use to identify Ferrari 458 Italia, the one
> Ferrari uses should be preferred, because they are clearly the authoritative
> source.
>
> MW: This has the corollary that authoritative sources have the
> responsibility to create URIs for the things they are responsible for.
>
> Regards
>
> Matthew West
> Information Junction
> Tel: +44 1489 880185
> Mobile: +44 750 3385279
> Skype: dr.matthew.west
> matthew.west@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.informationjunction.co.uk/
> http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/
>
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