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Re: [ontology-summit] URIs for quantities, units and scales

To: Ontology Summit 2009 <ontology-summit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "John F. Sowa" <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Howard.Mason@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, jjb5@xxxxxxxxxxx
From: Pat Hayes <phayes@xxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:21:30 -0500
Message-id: <D8B00DE4-F001-4424-A57A-51710E039584@xxxxxxx>

On Mar 20, 2009, at 12:59 PM, John F. Sowa wrote:    (01)

> David,
>
> URIs aren't magic.  People have relied on paper to transmit
> and agree on meaning for many, many centuries.  Putting a pail
> of garbage at the end of a URI rainbow won't make it gold.
>
> DL> I suggest that creating a self-consistent ontology will take
>> time, but assigning URIs to quantities, units and scales will
>> bring an immediate benefit. The URIs can be used without an
>> ontology within existing data models.
>
> If you don't do your homework in defining the meaning of any
> symbols at the end of that URI rainbow, it'll just be garbage.
> The GIGO principle for computer systems has not been repealed
> by the Semantic Web.
>    (02)

All true; but on the other hand, an ontology isn't the only way to pin  
down a meaning. In this case, existing data models might well be the  
better choice. Even OWL relies upon the XSD datatypes to define things  
like integers and dates, rather than trying to ontologize everything  
explicitly.    (03)

Pat    (04)

> John
>
>
>
>
>
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>    (05)

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