Mike Bennett wrote:
> I agree with Pat. On a similar line, there are places where you would
> want to refer to the value of something, for example the value of the
> current London Interbank Offer Rate, as part of the terms for a
> financial instrument. On the day, that would have a value (in
> percentage; there are similar terms that would have a value denominated
> in Dollars for example). But in the security terms, which will certainly
> form data elements in a database or message, there is the need to refer
> to the concept of the thing that can be measured. (01)
Agreed. Bear in mind that the VIM after Chapter 1 is all about making
measurements. All measurements are of particular quantities. The
_concept_ of the thing that can be measured is the driver for the design
of measurement algorithms and measurement devices, but you need the
actual _thing_ to make a measurement. (02)
> I'm sure there are other data ontologies that include terms that specify
> measurable things. (03)
And many that have naive, ambiguous, and/or erroneous notions of
measurement. But, yes. (04)
Please understand that I am not promoting the VIM as the normative
ontology. The value of the VIM is that it helps us to sort these
concepts out. So when we create the ontology, we know that there are
four or five different concepts and we are careful to specify the ones
we mean, and distinguish them from the others. In other words, we can
construct an ontology from the VIM for educational purposes and then
throw some of it away for practical reasons. And in the normative
ontology, we want to assign the common term to the concept that is the
most common understanding or the most useful common understanding. (05)
-Ed (06)
--
Edward J. Barkmeyer Email: edbark@xxxxxxxx
National Institute of Standards & Technology
Manufacturing Systems Integration Division
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8263 Tel: +1 301-975-3528
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8263 FAX: +1 301-975-4694 (07)
"The opinions expressed above do not reflect consensus of NIST,
and have not been reviewed by any Government authority." (08)
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