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

To: "Ontology Summit 2009" <ontology-summit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "Peter F Brown (Pensive SA)" <peter@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:23:42 +0100
Message-id: <1B2253B0359130439EA571FF30251AAE11859B@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
John:
"If I need a unique identifier, my first choice would be one that
had been firmly established by international agreements, not a
pointer to a web site that somebody could change at any moment."    (01)

Agree totally: but surely the two can - should - be reconciled? More and
more web services will need unique identifiers to disambiguate such
"subjects" and both people and services need a mechanism to know who
such "authoritative" sources are. Nobody would serious suggest as a
serious service a pointer on a web site that anyone could change: but
what if the service also told you that the source "maintenance
authority" is valid, authenticated (using DigSig) and a community-like
mechanism of "x trusts this source as being authority" - surely that is
the path to establishing a "web of trust"...?    (02)

Regards,
Peter    (03)

-----Original Message-----
From: ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ontology-summit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John F.
Sowa
Sent: 21 March 2009 17:13
To: Ontology Summit 2009
Subject: Re: [ontology-summit] URIs for quantities, units and scales    (04)

Peter,    (05)

Everybody from Linnaeus (1707 to 1778) to the present would agree
with that point:    (06)

PFB> By using the same identifier for some thing, whatever different
 > parties might call it ("avocat" (uid:12345) is the same as
 > "avocado" (uid:12345), is surely a step forward from having to
 > do painful inferencing such as "when I use the term 'avocat'
 > in the context of some French text and discussion about fruit...    (07)

I also agree that having information freely available on the WWW
is extremely important.  But there are international organizations
that have been establishing unique identifiers for decades or even
centuries:  units of measure, plant and animal species, chemical
elements, chemical compounds, etc.    (08)

I agree that H and O are extremely ambiguous, except in the context
of chemical elements.  Therefore, I would prefix those letters
with the identifier for the organization that established that
standard.    (09)

If I need a unique identifier, my first choice would be one that
had been firmly established by international agreements, not a
pointer to a web site that somebody could change at any moment.    (010)

John    (011)





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