Dear Pat, Barry and John, (01)
MW: I think it is important to remember that the uses of ontologies
are diverse, as John says. (02)
> The word 'science' is not an honorific that implies truth. The
> majority of publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals
> become obsolete within a few years after publication.
>
> Furthermore, the term 'standard' applies to engineering artifacts,
> not to scientific theories. The purpose of a standard is to stabilize
> an engineering design at a stage where it can provide a fixed,
> reliable platform for the development of products and applications.
>
> A fixed design, however, is an obstacle to innovation in the platform
> itself, although it is valuable for promoting innovation in
> applications
> that use the platform. In order to support fundamental research while
> providing a stable platform for applications, it's important to
> recognize that engineering, not science requires standards.
>
> BS> Biologists like easy ways. Also biologists need guidelines as to
> > what they should be doing when they first recognize the need for
> > ontologies. Alternatives (drive on the right; drive on the left;
> > it's up to you) defeat this need.
>
> Are you talking about biologists doing pure science, or biologists
> doing applied science (engineering)? The pure scientists should not
> be restricted by any constraints by standards committees of any kind.
> The engineers, however, must abide by standards that determine how
> their products fit with products designed by other engineers. (03)
MW: I expect that biologists are using ontologies in much the same way
as engineers do: as a common language which can be used to communicate
with with minimum ambiguity. Because what you are pointing at as a term
in an ontology has an agreed meaning, then you can both agree you are
talking about the same thing when you use that term. This is much more
than a dictionary, because what can be formalised of the definition is,
but that is the purpose of the formalisation, rather than reasoning in
any deep way. (04)
MW: Something who purpose is reuse in this way is a standard. Agreement
as to its use for communication within a community is necessary for it
to achieve its purpose.
>
> (And by the way, the terms 'pure' and 'applied' should not be
> considered honorifics. For many, or perhaps most, purposes
> applied science or engineering is more valuable.)
>
> The OOR resides in an ambiguous position between science and
> engineering. For scientific purposes, it should be open to all
> submissions, but for engineering purposes, it should support
> some methodology for developing standards.
>
> But the question is who should develop the standards? The OOR?
> Or engineering organizations that are closest to the applications? (05)
MW: There are standards at two levels here:
- standards for ontology development,
- standard ontologies. (06)
MW: We might reasonably say something about the first of these, and
we might validate whether ontologies conform to them or not, or to
what degree. (07)
Regards (08)
Matthew West
Reference Data Architecture and Standards Manager
Shell International Petroleum Company Limited
Registered in England and Wales
Registered number: 621148
Registered office: Shell Centre, London SE1 7NA, United Kingdom (09)
Tel: +44 20 7934 4490 Mobile: +44 7796 336538
Email: matthew.west@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.shell.com
http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/ (010)
>
> John
>
>
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