uom-ontology-std
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Re: [uom-ontology-std] retitled: magnitude of a quantity

To: uom-ontology-std <uom-ontology-std@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: John Graybeal <graybeal@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:54:09 -0700
Message-id: <1F90532A-E73E-4FDE-8E0D-1C8D8BBA521B@xxxxxxxxx>

On Jul 17, 2009, at 4:42 PM, Dave McComb wrote:    (01)

> Well stated.  I think it's key to layer these ontologies.  If I  
> could restate and add one, starting from the lowest working up, I  
> think we need:
>
> 1) Values with Units (this is the very basic ontology that just  
> allows us to say "3 meters")
> 2) The measurement event (this just adds the temporal dimension, and  
> recognizes that there is an event for the measurement)
> 3) The measurement method
> 4) The thing being measured
>
> Each can be underspecified at the lower level (i.e. I could have a  
> measurement event at level 2 and say it's measuring "blood  
> pressure" (a literal) without having a complete ontology about what  
> blood pressure is (at level 4)
>
> And as I think you were suggesting to make progress let's focus on  
> level 1    (02)

ooh yeah :->.  For separation of concerns (and my personal time  
investment required), I'd really love it if all the emails on this  
thread focused on level 1.  Because values with units apply to  
measurements, and also models and descriptions, and can be easily  
referenced with no concern for the other 3 contexts.    (03)

In fact, I'm not even sure how values got to join in with units.  I  
would have said
0) Units
1) Values with Units
because just having units sorted out by themselves -- with URIs for  
each concept -- enables all sorts of effective tools and toys.    (04)

I'm hoping this project becomes not a "theory of everything related to  
units" but just "a usefully tight and complete ontology of units".   
Not as much fun maybe, and not as useful for some purposes, but it  
seems to me a first step in any case. And very useful in itself.    (05)

John    (06)

--------------
John Graybeal   <mailto:graybeal@xxxxxxxxx>  -- 831-775-1956
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Marine Metadata Interoperability Project: http://marinemetadata.org    (07)


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