Re: [ontolog-forum] Universal Basic Semantic Structures

["David C. Hay" <dch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In my model of the world (dare I say "upper level
ontology"), Enterprise Model Patterns: Describing the World,
I have put a lot of thought into the distinctions you describe
here.  

In my model, Geographic Location, is an place on Earth (OK, I am a
geocentric personality, but the model can be extended skyward if
necessary).  The sub-types are Geographic Area, Geographic
Point, Geographic Line, and Geographic Solid.  (I only
encountered the latter two late in my career, when I worked for a
telephone company and an oil company.)

Geographic Area, then, is defined as any bounded
2-dimensional place. (Since we're talking about the Earth, we have to
recognize that it's really a spherically 2-dimensional place, but that's
in the advanced class...)

Geographic Area has four sub-types: 

1.  Geopolitical Area is a Geographic Area whose
boundaries are defined by law or treaty.  Thus you have the
Geographic Areas that are "California", "Los
Angeles County", and the like.  Defining sub-types for
Geopolitical Area depends on where you are, but I've come up with
at least these:
   a. City
   b. Country
   c. Principle Country Subdivision (which is a really
ugly name for "State", or "Province" or (for our UK
buddies) "County")  In most real models it turns out to be
something like State or Province.
   d. Other Geopolitical Area (subject to
negotiation).

2.  Administrative Area is a Geographic Area whose
boundaries are defined, typically, by an organization, such as a
corporation, but also may be by a government.  Examples of this
include "South-central sales area" (defined by a company),
"United States Pacific Command (USPACOM)"(defined by the US
Department of Defense), and more common, a "Postal Area" 
(defined by a national postal authority).

3.  Natural Area is a Geographic Area whose boundaries
are defined by natural phenomena, such as lakes or continents.

4. Other Surveyed Area is any Geographic Area (other than
1-3, above) that is measured and whose boundaries are recorded. 
This includes the lot my house is on, the area that is the location of
the World Trade Center in New York, and so forth. 

Geographic Point is just that:  a Geographic Location
that is a single point. Usually it's attributes are
"longitude", "latitude", and "elevation",
but with different systems of geographic reckoning, they could be
something else.

Note the this model requires a Geographic Location Relationship,
which is the recursive entity type that links one Geographic Location
to another.  Sub-types of this include Geographic Definition
(linking points to areas, lines and solids), Geographic
Structure (that puts "Boston" inside
"Massachusetts"), Geographic Overlap (one of which puts
the "Navaho Indian Reservation" in "Arizona", and
another of which puts the "Navaho Indian Reservation" in New
Mexico.  And of course there's Other Geographic Location
Relationship, just in case.

All of this is a pretty sophisticated way to represent just places. 
The Government that has jurisdiction over a Geopolitical
Area is represented by an Organization, linked to the
Geopolitical Area via a link class that I have cleverly called
Jurisdiction.

Note also that this only covers the place itself.  A "place
with a purpose" is variously called a Site, a
Facility, or an Address.  This is where one or more
Parties (Persons or Organizations) are located to
perform one or more Activities, which consume, use, or produce one
or more Physical Assets.

Note that Address (for example) has two sub-types: 
Physical Address (which has some fairly complex relationships with
Geographic Location), and Virtual Address (which nicely
covers Telephone Address, E-mail Address, IP Address, and
so forth.)  

A Party may be located in  one or more Addresses
(Physical or Virtual), just as an Address may be
the location of one or more Parties.  

Note that a physical building is located in one (or more?)
Site (again, for example), but it is not the same as the
Site.  It is a Physical Asset.  

Among the simplest applications we build simply lists names and
addresses.  That's an output.  To actually understand what goes
inside that "simple" application requires way more
sophistication than most people appreciate.  I've spent a fair
amount of my career working on this model. 

If you've actually read this far, you are a good candidate for buying my
book.

Regards

Dave Hay


At 08:52 AM 9/26/2012, you wrote:
> On 9/26/2012 8:53 AM, Andries
> van Renssen wrote:
> > The reason why the _expression_ 'I dig a hole in the school
> district'
> > sounds odd is: because that _expression_ is a short-cut for 'I
> dig
> > a hole in the land that has a role as school district'.
>
> I agree with that point.  The notion of role is essential for
> distinguishing every subdivision on planet earth.  There is
> always a reason or a purpose for the choice.  That is true for
> everything from countries and continents to things like farms,
> parking lots, and playgrounds.
>
> > But the piece of land that is defined by that boundary is
> > nevertheless a physical object, and it has a mass, although
> > its value is unknown and not of interest.
>
> Space is physical, but it doesn't have a mass.  An area is
> a two-dimensional region.  The political subdivisions only
> specify coordinates that determine the area at the surface,
> and they are silent about depth or height.
>
> By fiat, the governments of countries lay claim to the mineral
> rights beneath their areas.  In principle, they could claim
> rights
> down to the center of the earth.  But in practice, the
> technology
> can only mine a few km. beneath the surface.
>
> When air travel became possible, national governments laid claim
> to the air space above them, but smaller governments did not.
> But nobody laid claim to the regions above the atmosphere.
> Those are more distinctions by fiat.
>
> In summary, I recommend that any ontology for any subdivision
> of the earth should specify the surface area S and the intended
> role R for that area.
>
> Then anything else that may be associated with the pair (S,R),
> such as the land, air, water, people, buildings, governments,
> should be specified as the X associated with the area S as
> considered in the role R.
>
> John
>  
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