On Jul 16, 2009, at 3:56 PM, David Leal wrote: (01)
> This introduces a larger point which we have only just touched upon,
> which is how these domain specific, and often measurement method
> specific categories are included in the ontology. (02)
To make sure I understand this point, allow me to start with an example. (03)
In dealing with measurements of things like chlorophyll, Roy Lowry and
his team at BODC/NERC have come up with extensive vocabularies that
take into account the mechanism by which a measurement was made (by
evaporation, by 10um filtration, by 100um filtration, by in-situ
reflectance, ...). The theory is that for the measurements to be
comparable, the technique has to be known and comparable (if not
identical). (04)
On the one hand, I firmly believe (a) it is important to track
provenance of measurements, and (b) it is important to be able to
document the measurement mechanism supported by a given device. So I
understand that descriptives about the measurement technique belong
in, say, a device ontology, or a description of the data set. (05)
On the other hand, they seem clearly orthogonal to the question of
describing what is being measured (e.g., chlorophyll), and in turn
even further from the units used to quantify the measurement (grams,
or liters, or whatever). I don't think our ontology has to qualify
what the units apply to, on the theory that an ounce is somehow a
different quantify when applied to gold and lead. (06)
So now I'm thinking that you mean something else. Can you provide
some specific examples? (07)
John (08)
--------------
John Graybeal <mailto:graybeal@xxxxxxxxx> -- 831-775-1956
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Marine Metadata Interoperability Project: http://marinemetadata.org (09)
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