On 2/1/2011 8:52 AM, Ron Wheeler wrote:
> An organization will have to deal with and mediate many different
> ontologies - industry standards, military specs, banks, different
> government departments from different national and local governments,
> insurance, payroll companies, etc. not to mention different departments
> within the organization. (01)
Yes. There are many kinds of information for which precise definitions
are not only impossible to achieve, they can create even more chaos. (02)
For example, consider the term 'date'. In the olden days, one would
simply look at the calendar and note the date, say a baby's date
of birth. (03)
That date will appear on the individual's passport, driver's license,
and other records for life. But the date is based on the local time
at the hospital. Does it matter whether the person moves to another
country? What if he or she goes on vacation to celebrate, and because
of a switch in time zone happens to have a birthday party on the
"wrong" date? Does it matter? (04)
There are many zealots who want to assign unique URIs to precise
definitions of every possible word sense. (05)
But does anyone expect the people who enter data to look at those
precise definitions, try to understand them, determine exactly
which one is applicable to the current question on a data form,
and mark it correctly? (06)
Anybody who expects those precise definitions to be applicable
to the actual data they process is asking for grief. (07)
John (08)
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